Nanoethics on the World Wide Web: Helping Faculty Enhance Graduate Education is comprehensive, multifaceted web resource for faculty to utilize in incorporating social and ethical issues in nanotechnology (SEIN) education. The primary goals of this project are to:
This web-based resource provides faculty with a variety of ways to incorporate nanoethics training into their curriculum. Presentations from the 2009 Nanoethics Graduate Education Symposium will be recorded and edited to create 15-minute modules that can be downloaded or streamed via the internet (coming September 2009). A seminar course held at the University of Washington developed case studies of nanotechnology ethics to describe real world situations that graduate students may be confronted with in the course of their research (see case studies). Furthermore, resources from around the web have been compiled for easy access to additional material (see resources).
The PI Suzanne G. Brainard, Ph.D. is the Executive Director of the Center for Workforce Development (CWD) at the University of Washington. She is an Affiliate Professor in Technical Communication in the College of Engineering and in the Department of Women Studies in the College of Arts & Sciences. She is one of three co-founders of the Women in Engineering Programs & Advocates Network (WEPAN), and a Past-President. She is past-chair of the congressionally mandated Committee on Equal Opportunity in Science & Engineering (CEOSE) and served on the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) Committee on Diversifying the Engineering Workforce. She was a recipient of the 1998 PAESME award, Fellow of AAAS and AWIS, and is the recipient of the 2001 Maria Mitchell Women in Science Award. Her research has focused on longitudinal studies examining issues of retention and advancement in engineering, science and the workforce, and national and institutional climate studies in engineering and science. Her new interest in the past five years has been the Social and Ethical Implications (SEI) of Nanotechnology; she serves as the SEI site leader for the University of Washington's National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network (NNIN) grant from NSF and is currently developing a module on ethics of mentoring in engineering.
Co-PI Andrew Light, Ph.D., is the Director of the Center for Global Ethics and a Professor of Philosophy at George Mason University. He is also a Research Fellow at the Institute for Philosophy & Public Policy at Lancaster University (U.K.), a Faculty Fellow at the Center for Sustainable Development in the School of Architecture at the University of Texas at Austin, and an Affiliate Faculty member of the Bard Center for Environmental Policy at Bard College, New York. His primary areas of interest are environmental ethics and policy, philosophy of technology, moral and political philosophy, and aesthetics.
Co-PI Marjorie Olmstead, Ph.D., is the director of the Nanotechnology Interdisciplinary Ph.D. program at the University of Washington. She is a Professor of Physics, and an adjunct Professor in Chemistry. She has been a Fellow of the American Physical Society, and won the UW Society of Physics Students Undergraduate Teaching Award in two separate years. She is also principal investigator for the NSF-NIH IGERT: Building Leadership for the Nanotechnology Workforce of Tomorrow.
Co-PI Francois Baneyx, Ph.D., is a Charles W.H. Matthaei Professor in Chemical Engineering, the Acting Director of the University of Washington's Center for Nanotechnology, and the Site Director of the National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network (NNIN). He has conducted much research in the area of nanotechnology, and has been awarded an NSF CAREER award, and a Whitaker Foundation Young Investigator award, among others.
Co-PI Buddy D. Ratner, Ph.D., is the Director of the University of Washington Engineered Biomaterials Center (UWEB), and a Professor of Bioengineering and Chemical Engineering. He has published many technical articles in the area of his research, and has written about the future of biomaterials in the Annual Reviews of Biomedical Engineering. He teaches the only graduate level engineering class at UW with a significant ethics component.
Deborah Bassett is the Director of Social Studies of Science at the Center for Workforce Development, where she conducts research for a range of projects addressing social and ethical issues related to emerging science and technologies. She completed a Ph.D. in Communications from the University of Washington in 2009. She also holds a graduate certificate in Values in Society from the UW Department of Philosophy. She teaches courses in culture and communication at the University of Washington and developed a course in nanoethics which she taught with Marjorie Olmstead in 2009 at the University of Washington.
Elizabeth Litzler is Director for Research at the Center for Workforce Development. She is responsible for leading research and evaluation projects, including oversight of data collection, data analysis, and writing reports and manuscripts based on project findings. She assists in the development and writing of new research proposals. Her research interests include the educational climate for graduate students, and gender stratification in education and the workforce. Ms. Litzler received her bachelor's degree in Communication from Illinois State University and her Master's degree in Sociology from the University of Washington. She is currently working toward her doctoral degree Sociology at the University of Washington.
Priti N. Mody-Pan is the Director for New and International Initiatives at the Center for Workforce Development. Her responsibilities include overseeing funded projects related to the Global Alliance, writing and editing proposals, fundraising, conducting research projects on institutional best practices in diversity, writing reports, managing an international exchange program, conducting program evaluations, marketing, and working with international and national organizations. Ms. Mody-Pan received her Master of Public Administration (MPA) and Master of Arts in International Studies (MAIS) degrees from the University of Washington and her BA in Political Science and East Asian Studies at Washington University in St. Louis. She also holds a graduate certificate in Global Trade & Transportation Logistics.