Robin Williams (academic)

Robin Williams, born on 13 November 1952, is a British social scientist who is professor of social research on technology at the University of Edinburgh and director of the Institute for the Study of Science, Technology and Innovation. He is an interdisciplinary researcher in Science and Technology Studies and contributed much to the social shaping of technology by studying the interplay between social and technical factors in the design and implementation of a range of technologies. After studying Natural Sciences and Social and Political Science at Clare College, Cambridge, he took an MSc and PhD at Aston University, joined the Research Centre for Social Sciences at the University of Edinburgh in 1986, directed it from 1997 and established the Institute for the Study of Science, Technology and Innovation in 2000.