Steve Rayner is Professor of Science and Civilisation and the Director of the Institute for Science, Innovation and Society at the University of Oxford. Here, he directs various interdisciplinary research projects on the impact of science and innovation on the future of human societies. He also directs the Oxford Programme on the Future of Cities and is a Professorial Fellow of Keble College, Oxford. His research focuses on the future of cities, scientific and other technical advisory processes in the governance of technological change, and the dynamics of climate change science and policy.

Previously, Steve was Director of the Center for Science, Technology, and Environmental Policy at Columbia University (1996-2002). He has also held simultaneous appointments as Professor of Environment and Public Affairs, Professor of Sociology, and as the Chief Social Scientist at the International Research Institute for Climate Prediction. Before this, he held the rank of Chief Scientist at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

Steve has directed the ESRC’s national research programme on Science in Society, and has been a member of the Royal Commission of Environmental Pollution, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and the Royal Society’s Working Group on Geonegineering the Climate. He is co-author or editor of 8 books, 3 special issues of journals, more than 50 articles and papers, and 20 technical reports on social and market impacts of technologies, risk management, and global and local environmental policy.