Professor Joan Leach
Chief Investigator, ARC Training Centre for Future Crops Development
Director, Australian National Centre for Public Awareness of Science, Australian National University
Areas of Research Interest –
• Science Communication and Public Engagement with Science
• Responsible Research and Innovation
• Social Epistemology
• Ethics of Science Communication
Expertise & Skills –
Theoretical and conceptual analysis, qualitative empirical social science research, Social Studies of Science and Technology
5 Key Research Papers –
• Medvecky, F and J. Leach. An Ethics of Science Communication. London, Palgrave 2019.
• Gascoigne, T, J. Leach et al. Global Science Communication. ANU Press, 2020.
• Montgomery, L. et. al. Open Knowledge Institutions. MIT Press, 2021.
• Gallois, C, Ashworth, P, Leach, J et al 2017, ‘The Language of Science and Social Licence to Operate’, Journal of Language and Social Psychology, vol. 36, no. 1, pp. 45-60.
• Ankeny, R. Munsie, M. and J. Leach 2022, ‘Developing a Reflexive, Anticipatory, and Deliberative Approach to Unanticipated Discoveries: Ethical Lessons from iBlastoids’. American Journal of Bioethics. In press.
Available Research Projects –
• Ethics of Science communication in specific domains
• Responsible research and innovation in ag tech
• Public engagement with ag tech,
• Communication synthetic biology
SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE GENETIC & FIELD TECHNOLOGIES FOR FUTURE CROPS
The ARC Training Centre for Accelerated Future Crops Development is funded by the Australian Research Council under its Industrial Transformation Training Hubs Program to run from 2022 to 2027.
It is a collaboration of universities, government research agencies and the Australian grains sector’s key stakeholders in training, R&D, social engagement, responsible innovation, breeding, marketing and delivery.
It also has international partners in gene-editing, SynBio, crop breeding, and, other partnerships for co-developing deep technologies to transform the agriculture industry and global food security.