Gil Eyal

Professor of Sociology

Email: ge2027@columbia.edu

Sociology of Expertise; Intellectuals; Knowledge and science; Israel; precision medicine

Gil Eyal workes in a broad field, which covers sociological research on Science, Medicine, professions, intellectuals and knowledge, especially as these intersect with political and legal institutions. He is interested in what scientists and professionals do, but also in how ordinary people as “lay experts” put together novel forms of expertise.

He currently is especially interested in understanding the causes and dimensions of the contemporary mistrust of experts. Put succinctly, the “scientization” of politics (namely the dependence of liberal democracies on expert knowledge for most tasks of governance) leads to the politicization of science, and the two processes constantly feed off and amplify one another. In future years, he will be co-directing a Mellon Seminar on “Trust and Mistrust of Science and Experts” aiming to involve a broad group of scholars, scientists and members of the public in an effort to take stock of the current crisis and how it may be mitigated. 

He co-directs Columbia’s nascent Precision Medicine & Society program, which fosters conversations and supports research on the social, economic, legal and ethical dimensions of Precision Medicine. He obtained his B.A. in Departments of Sociology and Psychology from Tel Aviv University (Magna Cum Laude 1989), his M.A. in Department of Sociology from Tel-Aviv University (Summa Cum Laude 1991), M.A. Department of Sociology, UCLA (1992) and his Ph.D. from Department of Sociology, in University of California, Los Angeles (1997).