2023 STEP keynote: 'A Front Row Seat to Policymaking during a Global Pandemic'
From: The Science, Technology and Engineering in Policy (STEP) program
On April 3 at 1 p.m. in Steger Hall Conference Center and via Zoom, Linsey Marr, Charles P. Lunsford Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Virginia Tech, will be the keynote speaker for the 2023 STEP Seminar, with an introduction by Michael Friedlander, executive director of the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC and vice president for health sciences and technology at Virginia Tech. A light reception will follow.
The COVID-19 pandemic brought significant and urgent attention to various areas of scientific research, including indoor air quality. Fortunately, leading scholars like Virginia Tech’s very own Marr were ready to respond, informing rapidly evolving public policy decision-making. However, the science-policy interface is complicated, as divergent values, interests, and perspectives lead to very different interpretations of the available information and how it should be translated into decisions with wide implications. In this keynote, Marr will reflect upon her experiences managing the complexities of informing consequential policy decisions as an internationally recognized and widely sought expert throughout the pandemic.