Reid Whitaker

PhD Designated Emphasis in STS

PhD Candidate in Jurisprudence and Social Policy,
University of California, Berkeley
CSTMS Research Unit: Berkeley Program in Science and Technology Studies, Designated Emphasis in STS
Affiliation period: January 2020 -
whitaker@berkeley.edu
Degrees Ph.D. Jurisprudence and Social Policy :: University of California, Berkeley (expected 2024)
J.D. :: Stanford University (2020)
B.A. Chemistry :: Carleton College (2014)

Research Areas

Reid's research focuses on the use of scientific and technical expertise in regulatory and judicial policy-making. He is writing his dissertation on how the FDA uses scientific evidence when promulgating regulations. More broadly, his work explores the interplay between law, science, and governance with an emphasis on the politics of expertise and the role of experts in a democracy. In addition to Reid's dissertation project, he is interested in how legal institutions respond to emerging technology and uncertainty, particularly in the contexts of patent litigation, healthcare law, and environmental policy. He has an on-going project exploring the risks and regulations of medical data sharing and was part of a project exploring how to use machine learning for clean water act violation detection. Methodologically, Reid's research combines science and technology studies and legal analysis with data-driven quantitative methods.

Reid received his law degree from Stanford Law School and is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of California, Berkeley in the Jurisprudence and Social Policy program. Reid graduated summa cum laude from Carleton College with a degree in chemistry. He is a fellow with the Center for Science, Society, and Policy at Berkeley and a Graduate Fellow at Stanford Law's Regulation, Evaluation, and Governance Lab (RegLab). Reid was previously a fellow at the Harvard Law School Library Innovation Lab and an intern at the Department of Justice in the National Courts Section of the Civil Division. Reid is currently on leave from Berkeley to clerk for Judge Colm Connolly of the District of Delaware and Judge Thomas Ambro of the Third Circuit. In his free time, Reid enjoys playing board games and swing dancing.

last updated: January 12th, 2022