<p>Does politics belong in the laboratory? Is science inevitably political or does politics hinder good research?&nbsp;</p> <p>As the 12th largest research institution in North America, this discussion is paramount at UNC-Chapel Hill. On February 8th, &nbsp;the UNC Program for Public Discourse and General Alumni Association &nbsp;brought together scientists from academia and publishing for Science and &nbsp;Democracy, an online Abbey Speaker Series event exploring the interplay &nbsp;of science and politics.</p> <p><strong>Panelists:</strong></p> <p><strong>Holden Thorp ‘86</strong> is the current editor-in-chief of <em>Science</em> and former chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel &nbsp;Hill, a position he held from 2008 - 2013. Before his selection as &nbsp;chancellor, Thorp taught at UNC for 15 years, during which time he &nbsp;directed the Morehead Planetarium, was appointed as a Kenan professor &nbsp;and chair of the Department of Chemistry and served as dean of the &nbsp;College of Arts and Sciences. Thorp co-founded two biotechnology &nbsp;companies and has written two books with co-author Buck Goldstein about &nbsp;higher education's role in <a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9781469609843/engines-of-innovation/">entrepreneurship</a> and its relationship to <a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9781469646862/our-higher-calling/">the American people</a>. Between his appointments at UNC and <em>Science</em>, Thorp served as provost of Washington University in St. Louis.</p> <p><strong>Luana Maroja</strong> is an associate &nbsp;professor of biology and chair of the biochemistry and molecular biology &nbsp;program at Williams College. Her areas of expertise include &nbsp;evolutionary genetics, speciation, and landscape genetics, and she &nbsp;teaches courses on evolution and leads a lab researching the evolution &nbsp;of barriers to gene exchange. Maroja’s work has been published in &nbsp;various journals, including <em>Ecology and Evolution</em>, <em>G3</em>, and <em>Nature</em>, and she wrote for <em>The Atlantic</em> about <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/05/self-censorship-campus-bad-science/589969/">the potential dangers of self-censorship in the sciences in higher education</a>. &nbsp;Maroja holds bachelor’s and master's degrees from the Universidade &nbsp;Federal do Rio de Janeiro and a doctorate from Cornell University.</p> <h3>Moderator:</h3> <p><strong>Chris Clemens</strong> is Provost and &nbsp;Jaroslav Folda Distinguished Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the &nbsp;University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has held numerous &nbsp;administrative roles at Carolina, including department chair, senior &nbsp;associate dean for natural sciences, and senior associate dean for &nbsp;research and innovation. In these roles, he helped launch the &nbsp;Environment, Ecology, and Energy program (E3P) and collaborated with &nbsp;chairs to build the research enterprise and develop the curriculum in &nbsp;the College’s newest departments — applied physical sciences and &nbsp;biomedical engineering. Clemens holds a bachelor's degree in &nbsp;astrophysics from the University of Oklahoma and a doctorate in &nbsp;astronomy from the University of Texas at Austin.</p> <p><br></p>