Research Ethics Lecture Series

Dr. Thomas P Seager is an Associate Professor in the School of Sustainable Engineering & the Built Environment and Director of the Sustainable Energy and Environmental Decision Sciences (SEEDS) studio at Arizona State University in Tempe AZ. Dr. Seager leads research teams working at the boundaries of engineering and social science to understand resilient infrastructure systems, the life-cycle environmental consequences of emerging energy technologies, novel approaches to teamwork and communication in socio-technical integrative settings, and engineering ethics education. Current research sponsors include the National Science Foundation, the US Army Corp of Engineers, the Environmental Protection Agency, and several industry partners. Additionally, Dr. Seager serves as Chairman of two startup companies: eXperiential Sustainability Ethics Training (XSETGames) publishes a twitter-based game simulating the Tragedy of the Commons that is used by dozens of Universities on three different continents, while Building Integrated Solar Thermal Electricity Generation (BISTEG-USA) is developing full-scale working sculptures that create electricity from sunlight without using photovoltaics. Lastly, Dr. Seager founded the non-profit Sustainability Conoscente Network as a mechanism for sharing knowledge related to systems approaches to sustainable technologies. The Conoscente holds the International Symposium on Sustainable Systems and Technologies in May of every year (issst2015.net).

Unlike the traditional approach to ethics education that involves reading, writing, and discussing moral reasoning in the abstract, our new pedagogy uses experiential games to position students in situations that require first-hand ethical decision-making. The games allow students to personally explore what factors prevent them from living up to their moral ideals, and what strategies are effective for coordinating groups to address collective-action problems, where personal incentives are at odds with the group’s best interests. Each game consists of complete and independent modules that can be combined to form undergraduate & graduate level courses in sustainability ethics. Furthermore, both the modules and the course are deliverable in a synchronous (or semi-synchronous) fashion at multiple Universities, wherein students at multiple campuses interact on-line through game play. The games can also be played entirely in-class, in blended learning environments (online and in-class), or completely online. This novel multi-campus form of instruction allows students to be mentored by multiple instructors from different disciplines.

Philip Kitcher was born in 1947 in London (U.K.). He received his B.A. from Cambridge University and his Ph.D. from Princeton. He has taught at several American Universities, and is currently John Dewey Professor of Philosophy at Columbia. He is the author of books on topics ranging from the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of biology, the growth of science, the role of science in society, naturalistic ethics, Wagner’s Ring, and Joyce’s Finnegans Wake. He has been President of the American Philosophical Association (Pacific Division) and Editor-in-Chief of Philosophy of Science. A Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he was also the first recipient of the Prometheus Prize, awarded by the American Philosophical Association for work in expanding the frontiers of Science and Philosophy. He has been named a “Friend of Darwin” by the National Committee on Science Education, and received a Lannan Foundation Notable Book Award for Living With Darwin. Among his recent books are Science in a Democratic Society (Prometheus Books), The Ethical Project (Harvard University Press), Preludes to Pragmatism (Oxford University Press) and Deaths in Venice: The Cases of Gustav von Aschenbach (Columbia University Press). During 2011-12, he was a Fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, where he was partially supported by a prize from the Humboldt Foundation. His Terry Lectures were published in the Fall of 2014 as Life After Faith: The Case for Secular Humanism (Yale University Press).

Should we mandate vaccinations for children? Professor Caplan, one of the leading public voices in bioethics, will bring his clarity and thoughtfulness to bear on the issues of vaccination. Caplan’s talk, part of the Research Ethics Lecture Series, will discuss the range of ethical, social, political, and economic forces that impact the discourse on vaccine mandates in the U.S.

David Mortensen, professor of weed and applied plant ecology here at Penn State, focuses on the environmental impacts of weed management systems, arguing that increased implementation of genetically modified organisms by agricultural policy is having a significantly negative impact on the environment by its coupling with increased pesticide and herbicide use. This same systems-level coupling also disrupts small to mid-scale level farming by making farmers reliant on proprietary technologies. In conversation with Jonathan Beever, Dr. Mortsensen discusses research, educational, and policy-related outcomes of his research and work.

Professor Bart Gremmen’s focus, as a philosopher, is on the ways in which scientists engage with social and ethical issues in their work. In this interview, he speaks with Jonathan Beever about ethical and social issues related to genetically modified organisms. Gremmen, professor of Ethics in Life Sciences at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, articulates a non-U.S. perspective on GMOs and on broader questions about ethics in research.

Professor Paul Thompson, W.K. Kellogg Chair in Agricultural Food and Community Ethics at Michigan State University, focuses his work on philosophical questions associated with the guidance and development of agricultural techno-science. In this interview with Jonathan Beever Dr. Thompson discusses the ethical implications of genetically modified organisms for environmental and social concerns. Thompson’s take on the issues of GMOs and the environment is to suggest that ethical issues need to be addressed at a case-by-case level: there is nothing inherently good or bad about GMOs.

Kyle Whyte, an assistant professor of philosophy at Michigan State University, speaks with Jonathan Beever about the intersections of his work on indigenous communities and the impacts of genetically modified organisms. Whyte’s work on environmental justice comes up as a central lens through which he thinks about questions of GMOs as social and environmental disruptors of local communities.

“GMOs and the Environment” attracted significant attention as part of the Rock Ethics Institute Research Ethics Lecture Series. During the event Jonathan Beever, with the help of Kristin Bergman and Michael Rury, moderated a panel of speakers including Dr. Paul Thompson (Michigan State), Dr. Kyle Whyte (Michigan State), Dr. Bart Gremmen (Wageningen University), and Dr. David Mortensen (Penn State). The panelists discuss a range of ethical issues related to questions of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and their environmental implications.

In 1946, several members of a U.S. Public Health Service team traveled to Guatemala to conduct federally-supported sexually transmitted disease research to aid STD prevention in the U.S. Armed Forces. By the time they left in 1948, over 1,300 vulnerable Guatemalan subjects had been intentionally exposed to syphilis, gonorrhea, and/or chancroid through invasive and painful procedures. Over half of these subjects never received any treatment for their potential infections. The research was never published. When the experiments were later uncovered and brought to the Administration in 2010, President Barack Obama personally apologized to President Álvaro Colom of Guatemala and assigned his Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues to conduct a historical and ethical analysis of the experiments. So what really happened in Guatemala? If the research was “ethically impossible” why did the U.S. government fund and support it? What do we do with the otherwise cherished legacies of those involved? And why do we still care? This presentation will lay forth the facts of not only what happened in Guatemala from 1946-48 but also the institutional context and research ethos that enabled them. It will argue, however, that despite the current robust human research regulations in place it is impossible to completely prevent a researcher from ever having to make an ethical assessment in a challenging environment. This type of casuist analysis is critical to both scientific and medical education. Kayte joined the Commission staff in 2010 after working as an attorney advising drug and device companies on FDA compliance and pro bono for an international children’s health NGO. Kayte received her J.D. and M. Bioethics from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and School of Medicine respectively after graduating from Middlebury College. Kayte’s interest and publications focus on reproductive justice, genetic testing, drug and device regulation, and teaching research ethics. For an audio podcast preview, listen to The Rock's Podcasts: http://bit.ly/TheRockPodcasts. Read the Rock Blogs for a guest post by Kayte: http://bit.ly/1oGOMiB. We will be Live Tweeting the event and accepting questions from those who use @rockethicspsu or #RELS14 in their Tweet. Part of the Research Ethics Lecture Series.

“People know worldwide what fabrication, falsification, plagiarism are,” says Dr. Melissa Anderson, Associate Dean of Graduate Education and Professor of Higher Education at University of Minnesota. So a pressing question in international research is: what are the structural issues that could explain the variation in research misconduct between the United States and other foreign countries? People often highlight cultural differences as the key explanatory factor for this variation. However, Dr. Anderson believes that people jump too quickly to cultural differences, while overlooking the tremendous variation in standards and codes of ethics. Thus, international research ethics should track the differences in laws and regulatory standards in science (the organization of science, funding sources, training programs, etc.) in order to understand the source of international research misconduct and also, in order to foster future international standards of research integrity. Who is Melissa Anderson? Melissa S. Anderson is associate dean of graduate educationand professor of higher education at the University of Minnesota. Her work over the past 25 years has been in the areas of scientific integrity, research collaboration, and academy-industry relations, with particular attention to the research environment. She was principal investigator of a study funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health on international research collaborations and co-editor, with Nicholas Steneck, of International Research Collaborations: Much to be Gained, Many Ways to Get in Trouble (Routledge, 2010). Professor Anderson serves on the Committee on Scientific Freedom and Responsibility of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and on the editorial boards of Science and Engineering Ethics, the Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics, and Accountability in Research. She serves as co-chair, with Sabine Kleinert of The Lancet, of World Conference on Research Integrity (Montreal, May 5-8, 2013 and Rio de Janeiro, 2015).

What are the moral obligations a researcher has when she conducts research in an international setting? Dr. Nancy Kass, Phoebe R. Berman Professor of Bioethics and Public Health at Johns Hopkins University, believes that the core issues in international research ethics stem from the injustices that exist around the world and the special challenges faced when research is conducted in environments with limited resources. Even if researchers have a good idea of how to improve health conditions in a developing nation, questions of autonomy and justice are still at stake. We still must ask whether we should implement long-term research protocols that might only marginally improve the immediate situation or whether we should intervene systemically to help a greater number of people in the short term. Who is Nancy Kass? Nancy Kass, ScD, is the Phoebe R. Berman Professor ofNancy Kass Bioethics and Public Health, in the Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Deputy Director for Public Health in the Berman Institute of Bioethics. In 2009-2010, Dr. Kass was based in Geneva, Switzerland, where she was working with the World Health Organization (WHO) Ethics Review Committee Secretariat. Dr. Kass received her BA from Stanford University, completed doctoral training in health policy from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, and was awarded a National Research Service Award to complete a postdoctoral fellowship in bioethics at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics, Georgetown University. Dr. Kass conducts empirical work in bioethics and health policy. Her publications are primarily in the field of U.S. and international research ethics, ethics and learning health care systems, HIV/AIDS ethics policy, public health ethics, and ethics of public health preparedness. She is co-editor of HIV, AIDS and Childbearing: Public Policy, Private Lives (Oxford University Press, 1996). Dr. Kass co-chaired the National Cancer Institute Committee to develop Recommendations for Informed Consent Documents for Cancer Clinical Trials, and served on the NCI’s central IRB. She has served as consultant to the President’s Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments, to the National Bioethics Advisory Commission, and to the National Academy of Sciences. Current research projects examine ethics for a learning healthcare system including quality improvement and comparative effectiveness, informed consent in randomized trials, ethics issues that arise in international health research and ethics and public health preparedness. Dr. Kass teaches the Bloomberg School of Public Health’s course on U.S. and International Research Ethics and Integrity, is the director of the School’s PhD program in bioethics and health policy, and is the director of the Johns Hopkins Fogarty African Bioethics Training Program. Dr. Kass is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine and a Fellow of the Hastings Center.

This presentation will outline the expectations and norms for research ethics generally and how they play out in some examples from low and middle income countries. Data will be presented from two studies: one with U.S. based researchers who conduct research in low and middle income countries about the ethics and IRB issues they have faced, and one with participants from clinical trials in LMIC settings. The presentation will then move to describing a large Fogarty-funded and Africa-based training program in research ethics, what it has tried to accomplish, what the successes and challenges have been, and strategies to evaluating such training programs. For an audio podcast preview, listen to The Rock's Podcasts. Nancy Kass, ScD, is the Phoebe R. Berman Professor of Nancy Kass Bioethics and Public Health, in the Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Deputy Director for Public Health in the Berman Institute of Bioethics. In 2009-2010, Dr. Kass was based in Geneva, Switzerland, where she was working with the World Health Organization (WHO) Ethics Review Committee Secretariat. Dr. Kass received her BA from Stanford University, completed doctoral training in health policy from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, and was awarded a National Research Service Award to complete a postdoctoral fellowship in bioethics at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics, Georgetown University. Dr. Kass conducts empirical work in bioethics and health policy. Her publications are primarily in the field of U.S. and international research ethics, ethics and learning health care systems, HIV/AIDS ethics policy, public health ethics, and ethics of public health preparedness. She is co-editor of HIV, AIDS and Childbearing: Public Policy, Private Lives (Oxford University Press, 1996). Dr. Kass co-chaired the National Cancer Institute Committee to develop Recommendations for Informed Consent Documents for Cancer Clinical Trials, and served on the NCI’s central IRB. She has served as consultant to the President’s Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments, to the National Bioethics Advisory Commission, and to the National Academy of Sciences. Current research projects examine ethics for a learning healthcare system including quality improvement and comparative effectiveness, informed consent in randomized trials, ethics issues that arise in international health research and ethics and public health preparedness. Dr. Kass teaches the Bloomberg School of Public Health’s course on U.S. and International Research Ethics and Integrity, is the director of the School’s PhD program in bioethics and health policy, and is the director of the Johns Hopkins Fogarty African Bioethics Training Program. Dr. Kass is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine and a Fellow of the Hastings Center.

What are the effects of industry (for example, pharmaceutical, petroleum, or food industries) when they sponsor specific research programs? Dr. Marks, Associate Professor of Bioethics, Humanities, and Law at Penn State University tackles this challenging question by showing how results of industry-sponsored research are favorably correlated with results that suit the interests of the sponsors. Although the mechanisms that produce this correlation are not entirely known (i.e. systemic biases, funding effects, etc.), Dr. Marks unveils a broader picture in order to highlight the ethical challenges raised by this research practice. His interest lies in the ways in which industry/academic collaborations not only favor commercializable results, but also shape the kind of questions that ought to be asked and how they ought to be answered. Who is Jonathan Marks? Jonathan H. Marks is currently a non-residential fellow at the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University. He leads a collaborative research project that is jointly funded by the Rock Ethics Institute and the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics (through its Lab on Institutional Corruption), exploring the ethical and policy implications of industry sponsorship of health-related food research, nutrition education, and practice. Marks has co-organized—with Donald B. Thompson, emeritus professor of food science at Penn State—a workshop sponsored by the Rock Ethics Institute on “The Ethical Challenges and Policy Implications of Industry-Funded Health-Related Food Research” (Penn State, March 2008), a follow-up symposium entitled “Industry Sponsorship and Health-Related Food Research Institutional Integrity, Ethical Challenges, and Policy Implications” (Penn State, March 2012); and the Rock Ethics Institute’s Food Ethics Lecture Series 2011–12. Marks took the lead role in developing Penn State’s new dual-title Ph.D. program in bioethics (the first of its kind in the country) that allows and requires students to combine bioethics with one of a number of other disciplines in their dissertation. Marks has published widely on the intersections of law, ethics, human rights, and policy, and his work has appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine, American Journal of Law and Medicine, American Journal of Bioethics, and the Hastings Center Report (among others). He has also authored or co-authored op-eds for the New York Times, Los Angeles Times and The Times (London) (among others). In addition to his work on food ethics, he writes about, teaches courses, and has co-organized an international conference on neuroethics and neurolaw. He has also written extensively about the role of health professionals in detention and interrogation in the “war on terror”—part of an ongoing larger project that explores the relationship between professional ethics and human rights. Jonathan Marks spent 2009–2011 in residence at the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard, and prior to joining Penn State, was a Greenwall Fellow in Bioethics at Georgetown and Johns Hopkins Universities. Marks is also a barrister and academic member of Matrix Chambers, London. While in full time legal practice, he was involved in a number of landmark cases including the Pinochet case and the Olivieri case—the latter arising from a dispute between a physician-researcher and the drug company sponsor of her clinical trials.

We rely on universities to conduct research that seeks to explore and address society’s most complex and pressing problems—from obesity and cancer to energy and climate change. However, universities rely increasingly on money from industry to fund scientific research. Sometimes industry support comes in the form of research grants; at other times, in the form of corporate philanthropy. Critics often express concern about individual financial conflicts of interest, pointing to several studies that find a correlation between industry funding of research and results that are more favorable to industry sponsors. However, far less attention has been paid to the broader systemic effects of industry funding on research universities and on scientific research. This lecture will explore these broader systemic effects, and examine the ethical implications of academy-industry relations, with a focus on institutional integrity; scientific integrity; and trust and confidence in scientists, their institutions, and the products of their research. Jonathan H. Marks is currently a non-residential fellow at theJonathan H. Marks Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University. He leads a collaborative research project that is jointly funded by the Rock Ethics Institute and the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics (through its Lab on Institutional Corruption), exploring the ethical and policy implications of industry sponsorship of health-related food research, nutrition education, and practice. Marks has co-organized—with Donald B. Thompson, emeritus professor of food science at Penn State—a workshop sponsored by the Rock Ethics Institute on “The Ethical Challenges and Policy Implications of Industry-Funded Health-Related Food Research” (Penn State, March 2008), a follow-up symposium entitled “Industry Sponsorship and Health-Related Food Research Institutional Integrity, Ethical Challenges, and Policy Implications” (Penn State, March 2012); and the Rock Ethics Institute’s Food Ethics Lecture Series 2011–12. Marks took the lead role in developing Penn State’s new dual-title Ph.D. program in bioethics (the first of its kind in the country) that allows and requires students to combine bioethics with one of a number of other disciplines in their dissertation. Marks has published widely on the intersections of law, ethics, human rights, and policy, and his work has appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine, American Journal of Law and Medicine, American Journal of Bioethics, and the Hastings Center Report (among others). He has also authored or co-authored op-eds for the New York Times, Los Angeles Times and The Times (London) (among others). In addition to his work on food ethics, he writes about, teaches courses, and has co-organized an international conference on neuroethics and neurolaw. He has also written extensively about the role of health professionals in detention and interrogation in the “war on terror”—part of an ongoing larger project that explores the relationship between professional ethics and human rights. Jonathan Marks spent 2009–2011 in residence at the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard, and prior to joining Penn State, was a Greenwall Fellow in Bioethics at Georgetown and Johns Hopkins Universities. Marks is also a barrister and academic member of Matrix Chambers, London. While in full time legal practice, he was involved in a number of landmark cases including the Pinochet case and the Olivieri case—the latter arising from a dispute between a physician-researcher and the drug company sponsor of her clinical trials.

This presentation will (i) describe the problem of child abuse, particularly as it relates to reporting suspected abuse; (ii) share research findings from the Center for the Protection of Children; and (iii) discuss some of the ethical and practical challenges that arise in our efforts to protect children from abuse. Benjamin H. Levi, MD PhD, is a practicing pediatrician and a philosopher who is a Professor in the Departments of Humanities and Pediatrics at the Penn State College of Medicine and Penn State Children’s Hospital. In addition to his other work in bioethics, Dr. Levi is recognized as an expert on ethical and professional concerns regarding the reporting of suspected child abuse. Dr. Levi has published and lectured widely on this topic, both nationally and abroad. Dr. Levi is Director of Penn State Hershey’s Center for the Protection of Children; along with colleagues has been instrumental in developing Penn State Children’s Hospital initiatives for the treatment and prevention of child abuse; and is co-creator of Look Out for Child Abuse, an extensive online resource that includes the Commonwealth’s only web-based tool for reporting suspected abuse. Dr. Levi earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Philosophy from Antioch College; his Master’s Degree in Philosophy, PhD in Philosophy of Education, and Doctor of Medicine from the University of Illinois in Urbana; and completed his Pediatrics Residency at Memorial Medical Center in Savannah, Georgia. Dr. Levi joined the faculty at Penn State Hershey in 1999, and since that time has been the recipient of numerous awards, including: the Hinkle Award for Translational Research; 4 awards for Outstanding Patient Satisfaction; an Excellence in Teaching award from Penn State medical students; a prestigious four-year Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Faculty Scholarship; a Community Service Award for his work on child abuse; a Founder’s Award for service to foster children; and a 12-month University Research Sabbatical during which he traveled to New Zealand and Australia, examining their systems for responding to suspected child abuse.

The terms “research” and “children,” when used together, tend to arouse suspicion of ethical abuse. That’s the right attitude to have, according to Penn State Hershey bioethicist and pediatrician Benjamin Levi, because of the potential risk of child abuse and harm. In this interview, Levi shares how research involving children can protect and promote children’s interests as long as researchers take the time to understand the special needs and interests of participants. “If you’re willing to listen,” Levi tells us, “children will tell you a great many things about what maters to them.” But Levi also discusses how the potential risk of abuse and harm that comes with involving children in research makes it necessary to understand and act on feelings of suspicion, both an empirical and conceptual task. Who is Dr. Benjamin Levi? Benjamin H. Levi, MD PhD, is a practicing pediatrician and a philosopher who is a Professor in the Departments of Humanities and Pediatrics at the Penn State College of Medicine and Penn State Children’s Hospital. In addition to his other work in bioethics, Dr. Levi is recognized as an expert on ethical and professional concerns regarding the reporting of suspected child abuse. Dr. Levi has published and lectured widely on this topic, both nationally and abroad. Dr. Levi is Director of Penn State Hershey’s Center for the Protection of Children; along with colleagues has been instrumental in developing Penn State Children’s Hospital initiatives for the treatment and prevention of child abuse; and is co-creator of Look Out for Child Abuse, an extensive online resource that includes the Commonwealth’s only web-based tool for reporting suspected abuse. Dr. Levi earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Philosophy from Antioch College; his Master’s Degree in Philosophy, PhD in Philosophy of Education, and Doctor of Medicine from the University of Illinois in Urbana; and completed his Pediatrics Residency at Memorial Medical Center in Savannah, Georgia. Dr. Levi joined the faculty at Penn State Hershey in 1999, and since that time has been the recipient of numerous awards, including: the Hinkle Award for Translational Research; 4 awards for Outstanding Patient Satisfaction; an Excellence in Teaching award from Penn State medical students; a prestigious four-year Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Faculty Scholarship; a Community Service Award for his work on child abuse; a Founder’s Award for service to foster children; and a 12-month University Research Sabbatical during which he traveled to New Zealand and Australia, examining their systems for responding to suspected child abuse.

In this interview with Philadelphia native author and advocate Allen Hornblum and Massachusetts native Gordon Shattuck, we explore a dark undercurrent of research on children in the United States. Hornblum’s journalistic uncovering of the stories of orphans like Gordon Shattuck describe the abuses suffered by children in the name of research progress. Shattuck, a former resident of the Fernald School in Massachusetts, shared details of his childhood of abuse and involuntary participation in harmful research programs. Yet he agrees with Hornblum that research must strike a careful balance between the costs of research and the goods that can come from it. Both discuss how they hope that researchers learn thoughtfully from past misconduct and protect vulnerable and dispossessed populations through ethical future research practices. Who is Allen Hornblum? Allen Hornblum an author and public lecturer. He has servedAllen Hornblum as the Chief-of-Staff in the Philadelphia Sheriff's Office, the Pennsylvania Crime Commission, and the Philadelphia Prison System. In addition to writing several books, such as Acres of Skin, Confessions of a Second Story Man, and the forthcoming Against Their Will, he has presented before a cross-section of organizations such as the National Institutes of Health, Institute of Medicine and a host of medical schools. This interview is part of The Rock's Research Ethics Lecture Series.

Though often cited as our most precious resource and dearest commodity, children – particularly those institutionalized in orphanages, mental asylums, and warehouses for the “feebleminded” – were often sought out by physicians and medical researchers as test subjects for experimentation. Even a cursory examination of 20th century medical research will illuminate numerous examples of children – some only days old – being incorporated in a wide range of medical research. Many prominent investigators in search of practical treatments and vaccines, exploring the impact of radiation and psychotropic drugs, or new surgical procedures like lobotomy, routinely found their way to poorly funded and under-staffed state institutions housing the nation’s most vulnerable citizens.

Conflict of interest’ is embedded in many areas of public ethics. Certain enactments named for their ethical content, such as the U.S. Ethics in Government Act, have sections devoted to ‘conflict of interest,’ and the legal community, government officials, financial organizations, and many news organizations have strict guidelines on such conflicts. Yet, the term is rather new to the scientific and medical research communities. My talk explores the ethical foundations of conflict of interest (COI) in the sciences by investigating the concepts of stewardship, transparency, consequentialism, and scientific integrity. This framework is used to inform the current guidelines on conflicts of interest issued by the National Institutes of Health. Sheldon Krimsky is the Lenore Stern Professor of Humanities & Social Sciences at Tufts University and the Carol Zicklin Professor of Philosophy at Brooklyn College. Professor Krimsky received his bachelors and masters degrees in physics from Brooklyn College, CUNY and Purdue University respectively, and a masters and doctorate in philosophy at Boston University. His research has focused on the linkages between science/technology, ethics/values and public policy. He is the author of ten books, the latest of which is the 2013 Biotechnology in Our Lives: What Modern Genetics Can Tell You about Assisted Reproduction, Human Behavior, and Personalized Medicine, and Much More, co-authored with Jeremy Gruber. Dr. Krimsky has also published over 180 essays and reviews that have appeared in numerous books and journals. Professor Krimsky has served on several advisory committees and study panels, holds numerous editorial and advisory board positions, and been awarded many accolades including election as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

In this interview Tufts University Professor Sheldon Krimsky shares his views on ethical issues present in the relationships between industry and academia. While such relationships have been around as long as there have been universities, policy changes in the 1980’s including the Baye-Dole Act have increased the frequency and nature of industry partnerships. Managing conflicts of interests and understanding the funding effect in these relationships demands retaining the autonomy of the faculty and academic researcher while developing productive industry/academic collaborations. Krimsky reminds us to “always keep in mind the integrity of the work that you do” – which might be easier said than done in the face of complex and evolving relationships. Who is Sheldon Krimsky? Sheldon Krimsky is the Lenore Stern Professor of Humanities & Social Sciences at Tufts University and the Carol Zicklin Professor of Philosophy at Brooklyn College. Professor Krimsky received his bachelors and masters degrees in physics from Brooklyn College, CUNY and Purdue University respectively, and a masters and doctorate in philosophy at Boston University. His research has focused on the linkages between science/technology, ethics/values and public policy. He is the author of ten books, the latest of which is the 2013 Biotechnology in Our Lives: What Modern Genetics Can Tell You about Assisted Reproduction, Human Behavior, and Personalized Medicine, and Much More, co-authored with Jeremy Gruber. Dr. Krimsky has also published over 180 essays and reviews that have appeared in numerous books and journals. Professor Krimsky has served on several advisory committees and study panels, holds numerous editorial and advisory board positions, and been awarded many accolades including election as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.