Professor Robin Scheffler’s Course Featured in MIT News – Bridging Science and Society in the Emerging Bioeconomy

Class STS.059 (The Bioeconomy and Society) is taught jointly by professor of biological engineering Mark Bathe (standing, right) and associate professor of science, technology, and society Robin Wolfe Scheffler (standing, left).

Biology has long been used in agriculture, medicine, and materials. The 21st century has brought increased investment in biology as a potential tool for humanity’s collective advancement, giving rise to what experts are calling the bioeconomy. The bioeconomy uses renewable biological resources to produce energy, food, health products, and materials.

A new undergraduate MIT course, STS.059 (The Bioeconomy and Society), is modeling a holistic approach to instruction in the nuances of bioeconomy. The course was offered for the first time in fall 2025, taught jointly by Mark Bathe a professor of biological engineering, and Robin Wolfe Scheffler, an associate professor of science, technology, and society.

“As an historian, I sought an opportunity to bring the abstract, past facets of the bioeconomy into a modern, measurable, and concrete light,” Scheffler says, while Bathe notes that co-teaching “is a great way to connect educators across disciplines and work out some of the biggest cross-disciplinary challenges related to the bioeconomy.”

You can read the full article here.