Given our increasing reliance on the efforts of scientists and engineers, it is essential that they conduct their work responsibly, taking care not to violate the trust society has placed in them but to adhere faithfully to the norms of their professions.

IGERT Fellows at SU are prepared for these challenges through participation in a course designed to enable students to appreciate the critical importance of ethical conduct in their professions, recognize ethical issues when they occur, and make ethically sound decisions in dealing with those issues.

The highly interactive course, taught by Cornell ethicist Dana Radcliffe, examines ethical issues arising for research professionals in the course of their work, in light of the principles of the Responsible Conduct of Research. Classroom conversations include careful attention to a number of realistic case studies, on which students write analyses both before and after class discussion of each case.

IGERT Fellows can take the course for 1, 2, or 3 credits (depending on their interests and the requirements of their PhD program of study) with the course requirements scaling proportionally with the credit level.

The syllabus can be viewed here  [pdf].

Students can register for BEN 600 Ethical Issues in Engineering and Research on MySlice.