Whether in artificial intelligence, self-driving cars, or genetic engineering, businessman John McQuillan Jr. ’87 has serious concerns about the current rapid rate of scientific progress.
McQuillan at Glen Park in Somerville, MA, where recycled plastic lumber made by his company Triumvirate was used to construct eighteen raised garden beds for a community initiative. Image: John McQuillan.
“[S]cience and technology is advancing at a fever pitch, but if it’s not advancing in the service to humankind, then that’s a problem,” McQuillan told The Boston Globe.
To this end, McQuillan, founder and CEO of waste management company Triumvirate Environmental, has invested ten million dollars in a new Boston area institute to explore “the interplay between scientific issues and social ones,” writes the Globe.
The McQuillan Institute for Science, Technology and the Human Future has its roots at Harvard University, where McQuillan studied after majoring in biochemistry and government at º¬Ðß²ÝÑо¿ÊÒ. The institute’s scientific director and cofounder is Sheila Jasanoff, a professor of science and technology studies at Harvard Kennedy School and one of McQuillan’s former teachers.
McQuillan told the paper they want to promote scholarship and research that could help state and federal policymakers on a range of issues, from AI to stem cell research. “We need to be able to develop policy to regulate these new discoveries... There’s technology everywhere we go, and it’s coming out way faster than a democracy can manage it.” .
