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Robert T. Pennock
University Distinguished Professor
Michigan State University
Biography
Robert T. Pennock is University Distinguished Professor at Michigan State University, where he is on the faculty of Lyman Briggs College, the Departments of Philosophy and Computer Science & Engineering, and the Ecology, Evolution and Behavior program. His research involves both empirical and philosophical questions that relate to evolutionary biology, cognitive science, and the scientific character virtues. He was an expert witness in the Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School Board Intelligent Design creationism case, and he develops software to help students learn about evolution and the nature of science using digital organisms.
He is a co-founder of BEACON, an NSF Center for the Study of Evolution in Action and also directs the Vocational Virtues Project, which develops a virtue-based approach to understanding integrity and responsible conduct. He is PI of the VERITIES initiative, which aims to demonstrate how to implement this approach to RCR training at scale and is also PI of the largest national study of the scientific ethical mindset, investigating scientists’ views of values in science and how these are learned and passed on.
Pennock is the Immediate Past President of Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a National Associate of the National Academies of Science. The author of over a hundred articles in philosophy, science, and education, his book Tower of Babel: The Evidence against the New Creationism was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. His latest book is An Instinct for Truth: Curiosity and the Moral Structure of Science.
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