I’m an entrepreneur and writer. I’m currently funding scientists and writing about amateur technology scenes.


 

Latest Writing: Where are the field builders?

“The backgrounds of these field builders might surprise you. More than half of the people listed didn’t come from prominent labs or research institutions—some have no formal scientific training at all. And many who did have a scientific education also had important life experiences outside of research. Datar credits her party planning experience. Phelan was a biotech executive. Gagern worked as a consultant after studying economics. Unsuspecting people are thriving in the role.

This matches my experience working with science angels. It’s hard to correlate their effectiveness with any sort of traditional measure of scientific achievement or advancement. The trend suggests we aren’t casting a wide enough net. And given the efficacy of technoscientific field building, more serious questions arise: how do we get more people to do it? And from where do we draw?

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