Andrew Webster

Andrew Webster is a social scientist and member of Science and Technology Studies Unit (SATSU) at the University of York, UK. He was Director of the Unit for 30 years. He has also directed various national research programmes on novel biomedical technologies and is member of various national Boards and Committees and was Specialist Advisor to the parliamentary Health Select Committee. He has worked on regenerative medicine for 15 years and currently exploring gene therapy and its development as a field, and is funded by the ESRC and Leverhulme Trust. His main interest is in understanding how emergent technologies are, or are not, adopted in clinical settings, and through this work developed the model of ‘institutional readiness’ which is now adopted by NHS Trusts introducing advanced therapies in the cell and gene therapy area. He is Co-Editor of the Health Technology and Society Series published by Palgrave Macmillan. He has published widely in social science and science journals, such as Regenerative Medicine. He was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in 2006. He was Head of the Department of Sociology 2005-9 and Dean of Social Sciences, 2009-13 at York. He is co-Chair of the Association for Studies in Innovation, Science and Technology-UK. (AsSIST-UK).