S14E1 - Christopher Cummings on Risk, Responsibility, and Standardization
Sept. 1, 2026 GES Colloquium | Drawing on NATO-sponsored biotechnology workshops, this talk examines how safety-by-design, adaptive governance, and international standards can support responsible innovation, interoperability, and public trust.
Risk, Responsibility, and Standardization: Lessons from multiple NATO-Sponsored Biotechnology Workshops
Christopher L. Cummings, Ph.D.
Research Social Scientist at the US Army Corp of Engineers and Senior Research Fellow at the GES Center, NC State University
3170 Plant Sciences Building Innovation Hub + Zoom | Drawing on NATO-sponsored biotechnology workshops, this talk examines how rapid technological convergence, divergent national risk cultures, and fragmented regulations complicate responsible innovation and defense cooperation. It presents safety-by-design, adaptive governance, and the TAPIC principles as approaches for aligning technical development with ethical, legal, social, safety, and security considerations. The talk concludes with strategies for strengthening international standardization, interoperability, public trust, and shared responsibility without constraining innovation.
About the speaker
Christopher L. Cummings, PhD, is a behavioral theorist and social science researcher specializing in risk perception, public engagement, and the governance of emerging technologies. He leads the Center for Health Engineering at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center, where he integrates behavioral science with engineering, risk analysis, and public health systems. At North Carolina State University, he is a Senior Research Fellow with the Genetic Engineering and Society Center and a Research Social Scientist with the NSF-funded Precision Microbiome Engineering Research Center, where he examines the societal and governance dimensions of biotechnology. Dr. Cummings has directed multiple NATO Advanced Research Workshops addressing biotechnology convergence, risk governance, standardization, and defense resilience. He also served on a National Academies committee reviewing environmental, biosafety, and biosecurity considerations for synthetic cell research. Author of more than 100 peer-reviewed publications and Secondary Risk Theory, his work connects technical risk assessment with public values, trust, policy acceptance, and strategic communication.
__ Recorded from NC State’s GES Colloquium, this podcast examines how biotechnologies take shape in the world: microbiome engineering in built environments, gene editing and gene drives, forest and agricultural genomics, data governance and equity, risk and regulation, sci-art, and public engagement in practice.
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