Project: Archive of Agricultural Genetic Engineering and Society Center Interviewees: Fred Gould and Jennifer Kuzma, Co-Directors of the GES Center and professors at NC State University Interviewers: Matthew Booker, Alison Wynn, and Brad Herring Videographer: Brad Herring Interview Date: May 20, 2014 Location: Genetic Engineering and Society Center Length: Part 1 (01:45:34) and Part 2 (16:54); total (02:01:46) Learn more at https://go.ncsu.edu/AAGES SEE FULL TRANSCRIPT AT: https://research.ncsu.edu/ges/files/2017/09/Gould_-Fred_Kuzma_Jennifer_-20140520_transcript_Final.pdf 00:08 - So, Jennifer could you tell us your name, your institution, and your role. 00:27 - Fred, could you tell us your name, your institution, and your role. 01:03 - Fred could you describe what you do? 04:28 - Jennifer could you tell us about your role at N.C. State? What you do? 06:14 - So, Jennifer when you were a kid is that what you wanted to be when you grew up? How did you... 07:14 - So I know you have had quite an interesting career. You have done many things in your career. How did you end up arriving at genetic engineering as a particular interest? Were there especially important figures who helped direct you? 09:16 - Why was Jeremy Rifkin influential? What about his speech? 10:02 - Are there any paths that you didn't take that you regret or...? 10:51 - Fred, can I ask you some of the same questions? What did you want to be when you grew up and how did you end up in entomology in particular? 15:29 - Jennifer, What do you think about this field? Genetic engineering...how do you define that? What do you think are its components if you're put on the spot as I am now...? 16:30 - So if you were describing, no better yet, if someone else were describing your contributions to this general field of genetic engineering, what do you think they would say, what do you think they would identify as your contributions? 18:14 - Was there a particular case study or maybe even a controversy that really first drew you in to the policy or method side? Was there one particular moment or issue that you think really drove that shift in your own interests or career? 20:18 - I have a follow up question for your definition of synthetics--genetic engineering and something I struggle with as well in my field is the difference between synthetic biology and genetic engineering. Is that something that you feel is important to define here? Is there a strong difference? Is it... 22:36 - I think that's kind of what I was thinking more as genetic engineering like you said is messing with a couple of genes, synthetic biology is kind of building from nothing, from the bottom up-- 22:57 - Do you see those as having fundamentally different policy implications? I mean, you both have been around long enough that you've seen the evolution of the field. Do you think that synthetic biology as you just described it, has fundamentally different kinds of policy problems or questions? And are you anxious about the synthetic biology that's being practiced or imagined? 28:07 - Does that involve thinking about nefarious uses of certain technologies? Does that start by educating graduate students on thinking outside of their own lab? I mean, a lot of times they're thinking about what’s in their Petri dish. They're not thinking about the communities out in the world that may be using this. How do we work around kind of getting our graduate students trained, not even the public, but the people who are actually developing these technologies and thinking. is that an important area? 31:11 - So where do you see it in like 2100? Where do you see things--this going in the far future? 34:22 - I think that’s one of the things that we're doing in the museum field is that we are trying to get kids, any of our visitors, to use their imagination for the future and then to inject their own values into those imaginations. And seeing how if we were to build a space elevator to the moon, which a lot of people think will never happen, but just getting them to imagine the future and putting themselves in that and injecting their values, they may think about cloning human beings differently. I mean, think about some of these option differently, and so... 37:25 - In the year 2100 they're going to say, what's email? 37:33 - So both of you have alluded to this, really, or implied this. But in each of your careers you took part in a series in what had been revolutions in science. The molecular biology revolution, the shift to thinking about applications of--well Fred in separate conversations you've mentioned IPM and other forms of both adapting to and then rejecting or attempting to dial back the use of chemicals in agriculture. And so I wonder if you think that there are--it sounds like there are lessons from the 20th century that might be somewhat applicable here.