Report of the Committee on Ethics
for the Year Ending June 30, 2006

Membership:

Sigma Xi Ethics Advisory Committee
Dr. Stephanie Bird, Editor, Science and Engineering Ethics.
Dr. George Bugliarello (Chair), president emeritus and University Professor, Polytechnic University; former president, Sigma Xi; Foreign Secretary, National Academy of Engineering.
Dr. Kumar Patel, former Bell Labs division director, former UCLA Vice-Chancellor for Research, now president of Pranalytica; former president, Sigma Xi; member of the National Academy of Sciences.
Dr. Judith Swazey, founding president and senior scholar, The Acadia Institute.
Prof. Vivian Weil, director, Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions, Illinois Institute of Technology.
Prof. Caroline Whitbeck, Elmer G. Beamer-Hubet H. Schneider Professor in Ethics, Professor in Philosophy, and Director of the Online Ethics Center for Engineering and Science, Case-Western Reserve University.

Staff: John Ahearne

The committee met by conference call in October 2005. The main purpose was to review a draft proposal to NSF for a study of issues relating to authorship, publication practices, and grant review. The draft had been sent to the members in advance of the call. All members were on the call. In the two-hour conference call the members provided substantial advice on revisions to the draft. (Note: using InterCall system enabled recording the call and later playing it back slowly so all points could be written up.)

Subsequently, a proposal was submitted to NSF in March to meet the March 30 deadline. The proposal was not funded. The ratings were two "poor", one "very good", and one "excellent."

Other activities:

Ahearne is a member of the team supporting the Ethics Help-Line of the Online Ethics Center for Engineering and Science. This has been run out of Case Western Reserve University and is moving to the National Academy of Engineering.

Ahearne wrote the forward to a new book Socially Responsible Engineering by Vallero and Vesilind, to be published by John Wiley & Sons.

Ahearne is a member of a committee organized by Jason Borenstein of the Georgia Tech School of Public Policy to develop an online training program for students and faculty in the responsible conduct of research in engineering.

Ahearne developed a proposal on ethics for the AAAS 2007 annual meeting. Titled "Ethical Issues in Nuclear Weapons Programs" the 90-minute symposium will be held at the AAAS meeting.