Pieter Vermaas
Profile
Pieter Vermaas is an associate professor at TU Delft. In 1998 he joined the Ethics and Philosophy of Technology Department of Delft University of Technology after obtaining his PhD on the philosophy of quantum mechanics at the Institute for History and Foundations of Science of Utrecht University. In Delft he helped creating the Dual Nature of Technical Artifacts research program (2000-2005), in which technical artefacts were analyzed as having both structural and intentional natures, with functions playing an important role in relating these natures. From 2006 to 2010 he researched with an NWO VIDI fellowship the use of functions and functional decompositions in engineering design methods. His research focusses on design and is aimed at analyzing design methods for understanding what design is and for validating design methods. He helped launching the TU Delft Institute for Design for Values in 2017, and its aim to further the incorporation of moral, societal and legal values in technology through design is a key focus in my research on design methods.
His current focus is on ethics of quantum technologies.
He is leading the ethics research effort of Quantum Delta NL, the large national program on developing quantum technologies (https://quantumdelta.nl/societal-impact/).