Andrew Webster (1951–2021) was an English sociologist who was a professor of

sociology Sociology is the scientific study of human society that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. The term sociol ...

at the

University of York The University of York (abbreviated as or ''York'' for Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a public Collegiate university, collegiate research university in York, England. Established in 1963, the university has expanded to more than thir ...

, where he established the Science and Technology Studies research unit. He studied the sociocultural and economic implications of introducing biomedical technologies, including

stem cell research In multicellular organisms, stem cells are undifferentiated or partially differentiated cells that can change into various types of cells and proliferate indefinitely to produce more of the same stem cell. They are the earliest type of cell ...

and

regenerative medicine Regenerative medicine deals with the "process of replacing, engineering or regenerating human or animal cells, tissues or organs to restore or establish normal function". This field holds the promise of engineering damaged tissues and organs by st ...

, into clinical settings.

Education

Webster received the

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

degree in

social sciences Social science (often rendered in the plural as the social sciences) is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of society, societies and the Social relation, relationships among members within those societies. The term was former ...

at the Polytechnic of the South Bank in 1974. He went on to study the

sociology of science The sociology of scientific knowledge (SSK) is the study of science as a social activity, especially dealing with "the social conditions and effects of science, and with the social structures and processes of scientific activity." The sociolo ...

at the

, and received the

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of Postgraduate education, graduate study and original resear ...

degree in 1981.

Career

Webster worked at the Cambridgeshire College of Arts and Technology (now

Anglia Ruskin University Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) is a public research university in the region of East Anglia, United Kingdom. Its origins date back to the Cambridge School of Art (CSA), founded by William John Beamont, a Fellow of Trinity College at the Unive ...

) until 1999, when he became a faculty member at the University of York. He founded the Science and Technology Studies Unit (SATSU) in 1988 and continued directing the research unit at the University of York until 2017. He has held international visiting fellowships at several universities, including

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public university, public research university and member of the Group of Eight (Australian universities), Group of Eight, located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton, A ...

, the

University of Gothenburg The University of Gothenburg () is a List of universities in Sweden, university in Sweden's second largest city, Gothenburg. Founded in 1891, the university is the third-oldest of the current List of universities in Sweden#Public universities, S ...

and the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...

. From 2004 to 2009, Webster headed the Department of Sociology at York, and he was the Dean of Social Sciences from 2009 to 2013. In 2007, Webster was elected as

Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences The Fellowship of the Academy of Social Sciences (FAcSS) is an award granted by the Academy of Social Sciences to leading academics, policy-makers, and practitioners of the social sciences. Fellows were previously known as Academicians and used t ...

. He received the annual 4S Mentoring Award from the

Society for Social Studies of Science The Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) is a non-profit scholarly association devoted to the social studies of science and technology (STS). It was founded in 1975 and it has grown considerably over the years. In 2024, over 3,000 people ...

in 2017. The award committee wrote that "Webster's mentoring has not only focused on supporting individual students but also creating institutional environments for them," and credited him with helping SATSU become a Marie Curie training site. Webster has received funding from UK and international agencies to study how biomedical technologies such as

and

emerge and are adopted in clinical settings, as well as the sociocultural and economic implications of those technologies. He has been a member of several policy steering committees of the Medical Research Council, including the UK Stem Cell Bank Steering Committee and the Medical Ethics Committee. His research includes the study of "institutional readiness", examining the challenges that health care systems face when introducing regenerative medicine. The concept was adopted by advanced therapy treatment centres in the UK's

National Health Service The National Health Service (NHS) is the term for the publicly funded health care, publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom: the National Health Service (England), NHS Scotland, NHS Wales, and Health and Social Care (Northern ...

in order to identify the capacities they need to adopt the new techniques.

Selected publications

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Webster, Andrew 1951 births 2021 deaths Academics of Anglia Ruskin University Academics of the University of York Alumni of London South Bank University Alumni of the University of York English sociologists Stem cell researchers