Stephen Hsu was an unconventional choice to lead Michigan State University’s research enterprise.
A theoretical physicist by training, Hsu has done respected work on dark energy, black holes and the more esoteric reaches of particle physics, but his only experience in academic administration was a stint last year as the director of the University of Oregon’s Institute for Theoretical Science. The institute’s budget that year was just shy of $74,000.
As vice president for research and graduate studies at MSU, the position he assumed in August, Hsu is charged with setting the broad direction and expectations for a research operation that topped $400 million in expenditures in 2010. His office administers millions in internal grant money, ensures the university’s compliance with ethical and legal standards for research, leads MSU’s efforts to commercialize its research.
But Hsu has another sort of experience that MSU’s leaders found compelling: years as a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, and a successful one at that.
MSU President Lou Anna Simon said Hsu is not only “an extraordinary intellect,” but he “understands the relationship of research to economic...
By Peter Wehling, Tino Plümecke, and Isabelle Bartram | 03.26.2025
Biopolitical Times
This article was originally published as “Soziogenomik und polygene Scores” in issue 272 (February 2025) of the German-language journal Gen-ethischer Informationsdienst (GID); translated by the authors.
In mid-November 2024, the British organization Hope not Hate published its investigative research ‘Inside the Eugenics Revival’. In addition to documentating an active international “race research” network, the investigation also brought to light the existence of a US start-up that offers eugenic embryo selection. Heliospect Genomics aims to enable wealthy couples to...
Since Francis Galton coined the phrase “nature versus nurture” 150 years ago, the debate about what makes us who we are has dominated the human sciences.
Do genes determine our destiny, as the hereditarians would say? Or do we enter...
After struggling for eight years to have a baby, Shannon Petersen and her husband decided to try in vitro fertilization (IVF) in 2022. Their fertility doctor recommended a test that sounded like exactly what they needed. It promised to help...
A natalist conference featuring speakers including self-described eugenicists and promoters of race science, apparently including the man behind a previously pseudonymous race-science influencer account, and the founder of a startup offering IQ screening for IVF embryos, will be held at...
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