Heather Douglas is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Michigan State University. Her research focuses on the relationship between science and democracy, including the role of social and ethical values in science, the nature of scientists’ responsibility in and for science, and science-policy interfaces such as science advising, science funding, and science communication. She is interested in how citizens can and should interact with science, including the bases for citizens’ trust in scientists. She has also worked on the nature of objectivity in science and how to weigh complex, non-convergent sets of evidence.
She is the author of dozens of articles and essays, several edited collections, and her influential monograph, Science, Policy, and the Value-Free Ideal . She is a fellow of the Institute for Science, Society, and Policy at the University of Ottawa, a member of the Virtual Institute for Responsible Innovation, and a member of the Consortium for Socially Relevant Philosophy of/in Science and Engineering. In 2016, she was elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
"philosophers of science also have ethical demands to further explore how philosophy of science can enlighten policy-making...Douglas is leading the way." Gregory Morgan on Heather Douglas