Kirstin R.W. Matthews, Ph.D., is a senior fellow in science and technology policy at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy and a lecturer in the Department of BioSciences at Rice University. Matthews is the director of the Baker Institute Science and Technology Policy Program. Her research focuses on ethical and policy issues at the intersection between biomedical research and policy, including vaccines, stem cells, synthetic biology, and genomic medicine. Matthews also collaborates with Kenneth Evans and Neal Lane to understand how scientific advice is used in and provided for the U.S. federal government, including the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST).
Matthews has a B.A. in biochemistry from The University of Texas at Austin and a Ph.D. in molecular biology from The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.