WilliamsMemo36

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 110 Eighth St, Sage Lab, 5th Flr Troy NY 12180 USA willil8@rpi.edu April 7, 2009 Dear Dr. Sandak Ruit, My name is willil8 Williams, I am an African-American female graduate student who is interested in studying innovative medical products and practices. I have a bachelor’s and master’s degree in mechanical engineering, and I have previously performed research on an innovative cardiovascular ultrasound diagnostic device and the mechanics of lens accommodation. I also took a public policy course as part of my master’s work, and I have published a policy paper on medical technology for sustainable development ([]) based largely on your work which I forwarded to you in March of 2008. I am currently working on my Ph.D. in the department of Science and Technology Studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York ([]). I would very much like to spend some time in Kathmandu this summer interviewing you and some of your colleagues and employees for my dissertation research. The purpose is to study cases of medical technology transfer (MTT) to understand what makes them successful. This involves the two goals of understanding the political, cultural, and economic processes and barriers which shape and guide MTT, and, examining the utility of local empowerment and participation in the medical technology-practice. My research will contribute to the literatures on appropriate technology, economic development, and international medical technology transfer. I believe I can contribute to the literature by adding a social science perspective informed by the sociology, history, and anthropology of technology. The research will be disseminated as follows: I will present a paper at for the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) conference in 2010 and publish the research in my dissertation which I will defend in 2013. This paper would have a novel empirical data set, as no STS scholars have studied medical groups in the context of preventable blindness before. The long-term goal of the project will be a dissertation that will become a series of articles on the topic that will be targeted to academic research audiences (both in the technical and social science fields) and to nonacademic audiences, including NGOs and policymakers in Asia and Africa. I appreciate you taking the time to read this letter and look forward to your response to my request for an interview. Sincerely, willili8 Williams