Harvard University’s Sheila Jasanoff to Receive the 2022 Holberg Prize

Sheila Jasanoff, the Pforzheimer Professor of Science and Technology Studies at the Kennedy School at Harvard University, has been awarded the 2022 Holberg Prize, among the world’s most prestigious awards for academic work in the humanities and social sciences.

The Holberg Prize was established by the Norwegian Parliament in July 2003 and was awarded for the first time in 2004. It comes with a cash award valued at approximately $670,000.

The annual prize recognizes Professor Jasanoff for her pioneering career in the field of science and technology studies — known as STS — spanning over four decades. Her work has tackled pressing global challenges related to climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic, and biotechnologies such as gene-editing, arguing for a democratization of science and technology that includes society more fully in the conversation.

“The most basic question I have tried to address is what difference it makes that we humans live in scientifically and technologically advanced societies,” Professor Jasanoff said. “This is fundamentally a question about the meaning of science and technology in the everyday lives of individuals, social groups, and nations.”

Professor Jasanoff has authored or co-authored 10 books including Can Science Make Sense of Life? (Polity, 2019) and The Ethics of Invention: Technology and the Human Future (W.W. Norton, 2016). She has also edited or co-edited eight books.

Dr. Jasanoff will receive her award in a ceremony on June 9, at the University of Bergen in Norway.

Professor Jasanoff holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics, a Ph.D. in linguistics, and a law degree, all from Harvard University.