I lecture at the Department of Philosophy and Science Studies, Radboud University Nijmegen.

snailmail address:
ISIS, FNWI, RU Nijmegen, P.O. box 9010 6500 GL Nijmegen, The Netherlands

visiting address:
Fac. of Science, Huygens building
Heyendaalseweg 135, rm 02.809.

Latest

Inequality among universities?
On the basis of New Public Management's effects on universities, one could expect increasing inequalities between universities, in favour of the elite research university. We looked at publication output and found the opposite: the elite is loosing ground very, very slowly. The paper is now published. See Halffman & Leydesdorff (2010). (May 2010)

Changed jobs
I have moved from the STEPS department in Twente to become a lecturer in the department of Philosophy and Science Studies at Nijmegen University on 1 February 2010. (Feb 2010)

The future of chemical regulation in retrospect
In 1995, Roland Bal and I organised a workshop to try and create a dialogue between regulatory experts and social scientists studying regulatory regimes for chemicals. We tried to identify key tensions in these regimes in order to create possible scenarios for regulatory expertise in Europe. Almost a decade and a half later, we look back at the occasion of a new publication that tries to take stock of the current debate around the regulation of chemical risk in Europe (see papers.) The book will come out this year from Springer. (May 2010)

Research

I study how science and technology are woven through society, a.k.a. Science and Technology Studies (STS). I am particularly fascinated by how knowledge gets certified as 'in/accurate' or 'in/correct' at the fringes of the institutions of science, for example when scientists advise policy makers or when scientists are involved with amateurs. (more in CV)

Teaching

I will be teaching History of Biology and Science and Society courses in Nijmegen (more on the teaching pages, where you will also find the faq on how to write papers).

Phd training

Together with Teun Zuiderent, I coordinate the Phd training of the Dutch  STS graduate school, where Phd students train in a workshop setting.

Currently involved in:

Netherlands graduate school of Science, Technology, and Modern Culture
Science and Democracy Network
CRêPE, EU research project on co-operative research involving NGOs.