Professor Steven Yearley FRSE holds the Chair in the Sociology of Scientific Knowledge (SSK) in STIS, the subject area of “Science, Technology and Innovation Studies” at the University of Edinburgh. Steve, who is well known for his work in social studies of science and in environmental sociology, has been at Edinburgh since 2005. Key to his work is thinking about environmental issues from an STS or SSK point of view - for example, looking at the ways in which environmental activists have had to adapt to dealing with the demands of scientific evidence.
He was seconded internally to the role of Director of the ESRC Genomics Policy & Research Forum from 2006 to 2013 and then served as Director of IASH from 2017 to 2022.
Professor Yearley's current research focuses on coastal and marine greenhouse-gas sinks around the UK and western Europe. His wider work has explored the challenges facing environmental campaign groups when mobilising scientific evidence, and the difficulties of translating scientific knowledge into official policy contexts. His most recently completed project formed part of a large-scale multidisciplinary network examining industrial decarbonisation options for the UK following Brexit and the pandemic.