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White House Honors Two IFTFers as Champions of Change
White House Office for Science and Technology Policy (@WhiteHouseOSTP) honored Citizen Scientist Champions of Change, individuals and organizations who engage citizen-solvers and non-experts in scientific research. We are thrilled that two of the 12 honorees are long-standing IFTF thinkers—Ariel Waldman, a 2013 Future for Good Fellow, and Eri Gentry, a research affiliate, expert, and currently an IFTF Technology Horizons Program Research Manager.
The founder of Spacehack.org and global instigator of Science Hack Day, Ariel encourages and empowers others to contribute to space exploration. A recognized leader for all things extraterrestrial, she was appointed to a congressionally-commissioned committee on the future of human spaceflight and authored a white paper on Democratized Science Instrumentation that was presented to the OSTP. Ariel’s Future for Good project is to write The Hacker's Guide to the Galaxy, a book that will further equip space lovers to embrace science in their everyday lives.
Eri is a Quantified Self co-organizer and co-founder of BioCurious, the first hackerspace for biology. She sits on the Scientific Advisory Board of SynBERC and blogs about citizen science for MAKE Magazine. In addition to her OSTP honor, she was named a "Hometown Hero" by Popular Mechanics and included as one of IFTF’s Practical Visionaries. We are excited to bring Eri’s biology and life sciences perspective to our technology research.
Champions for Change is built on the premise that ordinary Americans are doing extraordinary things in their communities. By connecting amateur scientists and experts around the world with the tools, knowledge, and opportunities for experimentation, Ariel and Eri are cultivating new communities of passion outside of traditional institutions. They are what IFTF Executive Director Marina Gorbis calls amplified individuals--individuals using technologies and social connections to create value—who are socialstructing our world. Marina profiled both Ariel and Eri in her recent book, The Nature of the Future: Dispatches from the Socialstructed World, a testament to IFTF’s ability to recognize emerging shifts in the ways we learn, use technology, and engage with each other.
Join us in congratulating Ariel (@arielwaldman) and Eri (@erigentry)! Follow IFTF on Twitter and Facebook for more from these Citizen Scientists and our extended IFTF research community.
Photos: White House Champions of Change (whitehouse.gov/champions)