Richard Hayes

Richard Hayes, PhD, was most recently visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley College of Natural Resources / Energy and Resources Group. He was founding executive director of the Center for Genetics and Society, serving in that role from 2001 through 2012. He has written and spoken widely concerning democratic governance of science and technology, economic inequality, and the need for social oversight of the new human biotechnologies. Hayes has been active in social and political organizing since his student days at UC Berkeley in the 1960s. In the 1970s he worked as a community organizer with a wide range of progressive organizations. In the early 1980s he served as executive director of the San Francisco Democratic Party and ran the electoral field operations for the late Congressmembers Phillip Burton and Sala Burton. From 1983 through 1992 he served on the national staff of the Sierra Club, first as assistant political director and then as national director of volunteer development. In the early 1990s he was chair of the Sierra Club's Global Warming Campaign Committee. In 1999 he began the work that lead to the creation of the Center for Genetics and Society in 2001. He holds a PhD in Energy and Resources from the University of California at Berkeley. His current website is For A Human Future .

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Publications

By Richard Hayes, Science Progress | 11.06.2008

The new human biotechnologies have the potential for both great good and great harm. If used responsibly they could lead...

By Richard Hayes, The New York Times | 09.16.2008

David Frum correctly acknowledges that income inequality in the United States has been growing steadily and that the use of...

By Richard Hayes, Washington Post | 04.15.2008

In an essay in Sunday's Outlook section, Dartmouth ethics professor Ronald Green asks us to consider a neo-eugenic future of...

In the News

Image of a recently fertilized egg with few cells.
By Richard Hayes, Financial Times | 07.18.2018

The Nuffield Council’s approval of the creation of genetically modified children is inexcusable (“ Human gene editing morally permissible, says...

By Richard Hayes, U .C. Berkeley College of Natural Resources/Energy and Resources Group | 02.25.2013

This short note introduces the third topic I want to address during my time at ERG this year. It follows...

By Richard Hayes, Science Progress | 11.06.2008

The new human biotechnologies have the potential for both great good and great harm. If used responsibly they could lead...

Biopolitical Times