Outreach

Ever since Whitehead Institute was founded in 1982, engaging the public has always been a core part of the Institute’s mission.

Each year Whitehead has sponsored a scientific symposium that draws roughly 1,000 attendees and features presenters from all over the world. While this is the Institute’s flagship public event, Whitehead is always seeking creative ways to reach out to the general public.

The Whitehead high school teacher program lets educators hear about cutting-edge biomedical research projects, and question the researchers doing the experiments. View larger image.

In the early 1990s, just as the Human Genome Project was gaining momentum, Whitehead Director Gerald Fink, along with Members David Page and Eric Lander, launched the Whitehead Task Force on Genetics and Public Policy as a forum for encouraging public discussion about the impact of new genetic technologies on society. The response was tremendous. The Task Force reached more than 3,000 people through collaborations with a number of other organizations such as the American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics (ASLME), the Massachusetts Medical Society, and the Massachusetts Legislature.

In May 1998, the Task Force, in collaboration with ASLME, launched the first Whitehead Policy Symposium, “The Human Genome Project: Science, Law, and Social Change in the 21st Century.” The conference attracted more than 800 participants, including federal and state judges, attorneys and law students, state public health officers.

The Task Force and ASLME sponsored a second major policy symposium in May of 2000 with sessions on topics ranging from genetically modified foods and DNA forensics to the future of cancer research and the business of genomics.

Each spring, local high school students come to Whitehead for a three-day program of talks on biomedical research, lab tours and discussions with young scientists. View larger image.

In response to concerns over the quality of science education in U.S. public schools, Whitehead opened its doors to teachers and students in the greater Boston area, launching a mentoring program for high-school science teachers and an annual lecture series for high school students. The teachers come to Whitehead once a month for a lecture by a leading scientist and then a working dinner with graduate students and postdocs who act as resources.

The annual lecture for high school students conveys the excitement of cutting-edge research to more than 150 high school students for three days during the April spring vacation.

Whitehead hosts many other events as well, driven by the conviction that a continuing and open dialogue with the public is an essential component of the scientific enterprise.