Report of the Committee on Ethics
for the Year Ending June 30, 2007

Membership:

Sigma Xi Ethics Advisory Committee

Dr. Stephanie Bird, Editor, Science and Engineering Ethics.

Chair: Dr. George Bugliarello, 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 on 13 December 2006. The main topic was to consider a proposed chapter activity focused on authorship ethics issues. This was an outgrowth of last year's unsuccessful NSF proposal and a test of the idea with a group of chapter officers who were at the Sigma Xi headquarters for another meeting.

The general conclusion of the ethics advisory committee was that this is a good idea that should be pursued. The committee recommended the following:

• The initial concept is too broad and should be more focused. If it succeeds, further efforts could include such topics as data management and conflict of interest.
• Start with a pilot effort, in a few chapters. Try the four local chapters: NC State, UNC Chapel Hill, Duke, RTP (an industrial chapter)
• Provide advance material to chapters to help them prepare. Develop a set of questions to be used in the small groups. The advisory committee can prepare a set, but the chapters should add their own to take ownership.
• For the sessions: limit the small groups to no more than 45 minutes. Instead of having each group report, which can get boring because of repetition, convene together and then have a discussion leader involve all the participants in addressing the same questions.
• Chapters should record who attends and from what discipline. The chapters should keep a record of the discussions and what was learned. Chapters should have rapporteurs for the meetings.
• After the pilots, the advisory committee should meet to review the reports and decide next steps.

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 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 was held at the February AAAS meeting.

Ahearne has been asked to chair the advisory committee for the new Engineering Ethics Center being set up at the National Academy of Engineering.

George Bugliarello gave the keynote opening address, "Biomedical Engineering Ethics: Specificity versus the Absolute," at the 4th International Conference on Ethical Issues in Biomedical Engineering (SUNY Downstate and Polytechnic University, April 21, 2007).