A welcome from Greg Eghigian, Director of the STS Program

Welcome to the Penn State University Science, Technology, and Society (STS) Program homepage. The STS Program at Penn State is an interdisciplinary unit that seeks to understand the relationships among political systems, social traditions, and human values, and endeavors to learn how these relationships are influenced by science and technology, and in turn, how these relationships affect science and technology. This is done by using an interdisciplinary approach that reflects the widespread realization that in meeting the increasing demands of a technical society, education must be integrated across many different areas of study. It is believed that this approach should be an essential part of contemporary education and scholarship.

For the university, the program provides a means for bridging academic disciplines and forging new initiatives across disciplinary boundaries. The program also acts as a forum for students, faculty, and the community to introduce new, imaginative, sometimes even radical ideas and initiatives, that challenge the status-quo. As such, STS is a program well-positioned to support the innovative thinking and critical analysis that is at the heart of the university's mission.

The program also prides itself on being able to help individuals become "whole systems" thinkers, who can assess the impacts of one system upon a wide range of other systems. Further, the program tries to identify the "myths" that prevent change and to demonstrate how much "power to change" individuals have available to them.

Please take some time to explore our website and learn the many ingredients of the interesting and exciting mix of ideas and opportunities that the program has to offer.