Shobita Parthasarathy

Leadership

Shobita Parthasarathy

Professor of Public Policy; Professor of Women's and Gender Studies; Director, Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program

Shobita Parthasarathy is Professor of Public Policy and Women's and Gender Studies, and co-founder and director of the Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program, at University of Michigan. She studies the political economy of innovation and inn...

News

Parthasarathy comments on new White House science report

Jul 24, 2026

Shobita Parthasarathy comments on a new White House report that calls for academic research dollars to go to tech and artificial intelligence companies despite the public's distrust.

In the Media

Administration rules on research put innovation at risk - Parthasarathy

Jun 12, 2026 Bloomberg

It's hard not to imagine that ambition being dimmed by the constant threat of shifting political priorities. Innovation in the US "is likely to be massively curtailed," says Shobita Parthasarathy, director of the University of Michigan's Science, Tec...

Publication

Parthasarathy proposes people-first technology regulation

May 21, 2026

In her latest column for Science, Ford School Professor Shobita Parthasarathy argues that while governments and tech industries oppose regulation in order to stimulate innovation, marginalized communities face compounding risks in the process, becomi...

News

U-M experts explore benefits, harms of AI for people with developmental disabilities

Apr 20, 2026

WHAT'S THE STUDY: The Science, Technology, and Public Policy program at the University of Michigan's Ford School of Public Policy is embarking on a project to explore the potential benefits and harms of artificial intelligence to support people with ...

News

Innovation as a force for equity

Mar 27, 2026

Issues in Science and Technology is a quarterly journal published by the National Academy of Sciences and Arizona State University. Today's health innovation system doesn't benefit everyone equally. To change it we need to think differently about ex...

News

Shobita Parthasarathy on how to repair trust in science

Jan 26, 2026

In her second column for Science, Ford School Professor Shobita Parthasarathy argues that rather than treating the growing crisis of public trust as an information and communication problem, we should treat it as an innovation and expertise problem. ...

Shobita Parthasarathy on how to repaire trust in science

Publication

New nuclear requires strong governance to avoid making old mistakes

Dec 1, 2025

University of Michigan researchers call for policies to ensure that small modular reactors serve the public interest without creating and worsening familiar problems. Nuclear energy has long been considered essential for meeting growing global energy...

New nuclear requires strong governance to avoid making old mistakes

Publication

Shobita Parthasarathy’s “Expert Voices” column in Science: Beware the drive to scale technology

Sep 19, 2025

Ford School Professor Shobita Parthasarathy has been invited to serve as an “Expert Voices” columnist for Science over the next two years. As one of the world’s leading scientific journals, Science is a major platform for news and commentary on scien...

News

Prestigious National Academies committee appoints Parthasarathy

Jul 25, 2025

Ford School professor Shobita Parthasarathy has been appointed to the Standing Committee on Advancing Science Communication, a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) committee that was established in 2016 to advance ethical...

News

Podcast: U-M experts explore AI and the responsibility of its creators in building, guiding it toward best uses

May 30, 2025

Artificial intelligence is often debated in terms of being a cure-all or chaos agent, as if independent of its human creators. Neither is the case, nor should we forget who makes it and why, and how it should serve humanity. That's the backbone of th...

In the Media

The Michigan Daily covers STPP webinar on making technology work for everyone

May 23, 2025 The Michigan Daily

The Michigan Daily wrote about STTP's recent panel discussion about the importance of technical experts working with civil society organizations to serve the public. The webinar, titled “Making Technology Work For Everyone: Empowering Civil Society a...

Headshots of Shobita Parthasarathy, Molly Kleinman, Trevor Odelberg, Divya Ramesh, Annabella Vidrio, and Melvin Washington II

News

Parthasarathy on the intersection of technology, feminism, colonialism, and social justice

May 13, 2025

Kirti Jayakumar, from the India-based Gender Security Project, interviewed Shobita Parthasarathy about her journey into science policy, her research in India, using a social justice perspective to advance technology, and the role of law and policy. B...

State & Hill

A pile of parts: Ethical STEM training prepares students for the big picture

May 8, 2025

Have you ever disassembled a broken coffee maker or a sink, convinced you could fix it, only to end up with a jumble of parts? As a child, Terry Nguyen’s (BA ’25) curiosity about how things worked led to a broken fan, a pile of parts, and no idea how...

A pile of parts: Ethical STEM training prepares students for the big picture

News

Shobita Parthasarathy selected as an Institute for Advanced Study Scholar

Apr 7, 2025

In an era of rapid technological advancement, ensuring that innovation benefits everyone is urgent. Shobita Parthasarathy, professor and director of the Ford School’s Science, Technology, and Public Policy program, studies how technological innovatio...

Publication

U-M study highlights urgent need to train students about the ethical, social, and policy dimensions of STEM

Apr 2, 2025

A new STPP report, "Broadening Horizons," assesses the current landscape of STEM-in-society programs—systematic, multidisciplinary training that prepares professionals to understand how science, technology, engineering, or medicine intersect with eth...

In the Media

Parthasarathy on AI running the government

Mar 13, 2025 Al Jazeera

Shobita Parthasarathy, Ford School professor, says "These workers have real expertise and a nuanced understanding of the issues, which AI does not. AI does not, in fact, ‘understand’ anything." So, she says, “It’s a very bad idea" to use AI to run t...

The politics of inclusive innovation in international development: Menstrual hygiene management and sanitary pads in India

In the Media

Parthasarathy interviewed on BBC about 50th anniversary of Asilomar conference

Mar 4, 2025 https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct5vf5

The BBC’s Science in Action program interviewed Shobita Parthasarathy recently regarding her evaluation of the Asilomar conference on biotechnology, occurring 50 years ago.

Parthasarathy talks algorithms place in the criminal justice system

News

Parthasarathy speaks at AAAS Annual meeting about Asilomar’s legacy

Feb 27, 2025

Earlier this month, Shobita Parthasarathy spoke at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Annual Meeting in a session titled, “Revisiting Asilomar Fifty Years Later: Who is in the room when we talk about AI?” The session exam...

In the Media

Scientists meet for the 50 year anniversary of genetic science conference - Parthasarathy

Feb 21, 2025 BBC

Last weekend, a scientific ethics conference was held in Asilomar, California, to recreate the meeting that occurred there 50 years prior. Half a century ago, scientists met to establish guidelines for the future and practice of genetic science. The ...

News

Viewing Asilomar from the Global South

Jan 31, 2025

Fifty years ago, the Asilomar Conference on Recombinant DNA convened 140 life scientists from the U.S. and the UK to anticipate potential risks in the emerging biotechnology field to help inform rules and regulations. The conference was celebrated as...

News

Taking bold action toward environmental justice

Jan 29, 2025

A week after the University of Michigan celebrated the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS) honored his work at its own event—a panel discussion focused on keeping environmental justice at the for...

Taking bold action toward environmental justice

In the Media

Parthasarathy: AI energizes people to consider direction of science and technology

Dec 4, 2024 Nature

"Shobita Parthasarathy teaches graduate students about science policy at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. New technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) are 'really energizing people' to consider the directions of science and technolog...

In the Media

Michigan Daily covers STPP event with New York Times Tech Reporter

Oct 17, 2024 Read the Daily's story

The Michigan Daily recently covered STPP's event at the Ford School in a feature article: NYT reporter Kashmir Hill discusses the privacy implications of facial recognition technology.

News

Who owns your face? NYT reporter Kashmir Hill discusses privacy in the era of facial recognition

Oct 10, 2024

How much control should we have over our likeness? Our anonymity? Nearly 200 attendees confronted these questions at a Ford School event with New York Times technology reporter Kashmir Hill, in conversation with Science, Technology, and Public Policy...

A Conversation with NYT Technology Reporter Kashmir Hill

News

STPP brings interdisciplinary, historical perspectives to public interest technology issues

Sep 12, 2024

Many of the research projects housed at the Science, Technology and Public Policy program (STPP) in the Ford School focus on climate issues for a simple reason, explains Managing Director Molly Kleinman. "None of this technology operates without elec...

STPP brings interdisciplinary, historical perspectives to public interest technology issues

News

STPP awarded MIDAS grant to advance equitable AI research

Jul 23, 2024

A research project from the Ford School’s Science, Technology, and Public Policy (STPP) program was selected by the Michigan Institute for Data and AI in Society (MIDAS) as part of its 2024 Propelling Original Data Science grants to accelerate respon...

STPP awarded MIDAS grant to advance equitable AI research

In the Media

Companies should take responsibility on deepfake pornography - Parthasarathy

Jul 2, 2024 Michigan Advance

Shobita Parthasarathy, Ford School professor director of Science, Technology and Public Policy Program, discussed the Michigan bill lawmakers are working on to address the rise of non-consensual deepfake pornography. She said, “I worry about placing ...

Publication

Prioritizing equity among the great challenges of AI, says Parthasarathy

May 29, 2024

As generative artificial intelligence becomes ubiquitous, University of Michigan expert Shobita Parthasarathy says technical revisions to the mechanics may address some harms built into the technology so far. Yet, she argues, “it will always be behin...

Prioritizing equity among the great challenges of AI, says Parthasarathy

State & Hill

Faculty Findings, spring 2024

Apr 24, 2024

Innovation that benefits societyInclusive innovation—the idea of introducing technologies designed for and by the poor to boost economic growth in impoverished communities—often misses the real problems facing these communities and champions solutio...