Graduate Students Receive Ethics Training

 

The College of Science hosted a Science & Ethics Workshop for graduate students in Jordan Hall on Wednesday, Sept. 16, with nine faculty experts presenting on a range of topics from plagiarism to embryonic stem cell research.

Students heard that integrity in research, including careful attention to professional norms and conscientious consideration of difficult questions, especially in the life sciences, are vital to maintaining the trust of colleagues and the larger society.

“It’s more of a leadership training course in many ways,” Dean Gregory Crawford told the students, focusing on such large questions as energy, the environment and cloning. “We want you to be broad-based.”

Studies show that students learn ethical decision-making from mentors and advisors, fellow graduate students, family, other friends and faculty, religious believes, discussions in course, labs and seminars, professional organizations and courses dealing directly with ethical issues.

The presenters were:
-Prashant Kamat of Chemistry and Biochemistry on sharing scientific knowledge.

-Holly Goodson of Chemistry and Biochemistry on data ownership and conflict of interest.

-David Hyde of Biological Sciences on the basic science and ethics of stem cells.

-Mark Alber of Mathematics on ethics in mathematics and statistics.

-Gregory Crawford, Dean of the College of Science, on the ethics of nano-science and nano-technology.

-Rudy Navari of the Indiana University School of Medicine South Bend on human and clinical studies, including the Institutional Review Board.

-Mark Suckow of Biological Sciences and director of the Freimann Animal Care Facility on animal studies, including the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee.

-Jason McLachlan of Biological Sciences on environmental ethics in a changing environment.
-Victoria Ploplis, associate director of the W.M. Keck Center for Transgene Research on the ethics of transgenesis.

Participants received a copy of the book, On Being a Scientist: A Guide to Responsible Conduct in Research, published by the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering and the Institute of Medicine.

“The framework for consideration of ethical questions is always the human community, including the accumulated wisdom that a human community receives from its tradition across time,” Crawford wrote in an introduction to the event. “Here at Notre Dame, our scientific research engages all the questions with the same rigor and freedom of any other scientist. But we also engage a broader set of questions, including ethical questions, that arise from our Catholic tradition and mission – questions about truth and common good, human solidarity and service, respect for life and concern for the poor.”

 Released: 9/23/2009