UT Dallas continues its public lecture series on science and culture  with a look Wednesday at the influence that politics can wield over research funding.

The talk, “Science vs. Politics: The Battle for Integrity,” featuring Dr. Heather Douglas of the University of Waterloo in Ontario, starts at 7:30 p.m. in the Jonsson Performance Hall.

The Center for Values in Medicine, Science and Technology is hosting the lecture as part of its yearlong lecture series Funded and Forbidden Knowledge: Science, Policy and Cultural Values.

Douglas’ lecture will present a view of scientific integrity and its implications, and show how defending scientific integrity is not sufficient to remove all of the influences of politics on science.

Science, Policy, and the Value-Free Ideal

Dr. Heather Douglas discusses science and policy making in her 2009 book, Science, Policy, and the Value-Free Ideal.

Douglas studies the use of science in policy-making, the role of values in science, the moral responsibilities of scientists and the nature of scientific objectivity. These interests are explored in her 2009 book, Science, Policy, and the Value-Free Ideal.

She has served on the Governing Board of the Philosophy of Science Association, the steering committee of the International Society for History of Philosophy of Science and the Section L committee for the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

The lecture is open to the public and free of charge.

The Center for Values was established in 2009 to help the public understand the complex, crucial role that technological innovations and scientific discoveries play in shaping the values of contemporary culture.

The cornerstone of the Center for Values’ outreach is an annual public lecture series that brings in leading scholars to investigate topics at the intersection of technology and the humanities. An international group of authors, artists, scientists, philosophers, theorists, and engineers engage a diverse audience in thinking about issues such as “Creativity in the Age of Technology” (2009 series) and “Exploring Human Enhancement” (2010 series).

Visit the Center for Values’ website for more information.