Mitchellmemo36

Dear Professor Minger,

My name is Ross Mitchell, and I am a graduate student in the department of science and technology studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute where I am currently working towards my dissertation. I am writing to you as I am quite interested in your work involving human-animal stem cell chimera research. Specifically I am writing to introduce myself and to ask if I could interview you about your recent work.

My own work falls under the under the general heading of the social studies of science. Currently I am working on a dissertation exploring the way new norms, ethics, and regulatory regimes emerge out of a breakdown in the old ones caused by new directions in scientific research. I believe that the case of human-animal stem cell chimeras is a perfect case for exploring such a topic. This would be an empirical and descriptive account of the scientific practice as it is currently taking shape.

I would like to conduct several lines of questioning with you and others in your lab including questions on ethical decision-making (such as what types of materials to work with), views on how one’s research contributes to a particular future, and how one’s lab interacts with the society in which it is embedded.

If you have any questions about my project, please feel free to contact me by e-mail (mitchr4@rpi.edu) by phone at any time (518-555-5555)

Sincerely, Ross Mitchell