Andrew Maynard is a professor and Associate Dean of Curricula and Student Success in the Arizona State University College of Global Futures, Director of the ASU Risk Innovation Lab, and a widely recognized writer on science and technology. He is a nationally and internationally-recognized thinker and researcher on the socially responsible and ethical development of new technologies.
Andrew was born in 1965, in the English town of Preston, Lancashire. Following an early passion for science (which was pretty much all he could do — nearly flunking english, and completely flunking languages), he studied Physics a the University of Birmingham, where he graduated with his B.Sc. (Hons) in 1987.
After a brief interlude as a management trainee with Severn Trent Water (where he developed a fascination for water treatment and reclamation, and a love of rural sewage works), he started his graduate studies in the Microstructural Physics group at the Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge. He graduated with a PhD in Electron Microscopy and Aerosol Physics in 1993.
Between 1992 and 1999 Andrew conducted and led research into occupational aerosol exposure with the UK Health and Safety Executive. In January 2000 he moved to the US to develop a research program addressing nanoparticle exposure in the workplace, at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
Between 2002 – 2005, Andrew became increasingly involved in research into the potential health impacts of engineered nanomaterials, and was instrumental in establishing federal research programs in the US addressing possible risks as part of the National Nanotechnology Initiative. He left the federal government in 2005, and served for five years as Chief Science Advisor to the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies (and later, science advisor to the Synthetic Biology Project) at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Over the next several years, he cemented his reputation as a a leading international scholar and communicator on the challenges and opportunities of developing emerging technologies safely and responsibly
In 2008, Andrew was invited to join the World Economic Forum Council on Nanotechnology, and continues to work closely with the Forum on supporting socially responsible and beneficial innovation. Since 2005, he has served on National Academy of Sciences committees on nanotechnology, science communication, and emerging science, and has testified before congressional committees on a number of occasions on responsible technological development.
In 2010, Andrew was appointed as the Charles and Rita Gelman Professor of Risk Science at the University of Michigan, and Director of the University of Michigan Risk Science Center, and between 2012 – 2014 he served as chair of the University of Michigan Environmental Health Sciences department. Andrew moved to Arizona State University in 2015 as a professor in the School for the Future of Innovation in Society, Director of the ASU Risk Innovation Lab, and Chair of the ASU Master of Science and Technology Policy program. And in 2020 he took on the role of Associate Dean for Student Success in ASU’s College of Global Futures. In addition to his administrative responsibilities, he continues his work on exploring and addressing the socially responsible and responsive development of emerging and converging technologies, including synthetic biology and gene editing, nanotechnology, and artificial intelligence.
Andrew’s first popular science/technology book, Films from the Future, was published in November 2018. His latest book, Future Rising, was published in November 2020.
