Pitt's University Senate Presents Its Spring 2007 Plenary, "Protecting Science From Bias by Private Interests," March 28

PITTSBURGH-The University Senate at the University of Pittsburgh will explore the dangers outside interests may pose to scientific discovery as the topic of its 2007 Spring Plenary, "Protecting Science from Bias by Private Interests," from 2 to 5 p.m. Wednesday, March 28, in the Assembly Room, William Pitt Union, 3959 Fifth Ave., Oakland. The plenary is free and open to the public.

Keynote speakers are Pitt trustee and School of Medicine graduate Catherine DeAngelis (M.D. '69), editor in chief of The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), and Sheldon Krimsky, a Tufts University professor of urban and environmental policy in the School of Arts and Sciences and adjunct professor of public health and family medicine in the School of Medicine.

The plenary will be moderated by Herbert Needleman, Pitt professor of psychiatry and pediatrics, and will feature comments from Pitt Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg, Pitt Provost and Senior Vice Chancellor James V. Maher, and Arthur S. Levine, Pitt senior vice chancellor for health sciences and dean of Pitt's School of Medicine.

In addition to serving as editor in chief of JAMA, DeAngelis is a professor of pediatrics in the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. After earning her Pitt degree, she went on to earn the M.P.H. in Health Services Administration degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Public Health. She completed an internship in pediatrics at Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh and received her residency in pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. Before being named to her editorship at JAMA, she was vice dean for academic affairs and faculty and professor of pediatrics at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and from 1993 to 2000 she was editor of Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

DeAngelis has authored or edited 11 books on pediatrics and medical education and has published more than 200 original articles, chapters, editorials, and abstracts. Most of her recent publications have focused on conflicts of interest in medicine, on women in medicine, and on medical education. DeAngelis is a past council member of the National Academy of Science and Institute of Medicine, and she is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). She has served as an officer of numerous national academic societies, including chair of the American Board of Pediatrics and chair of the Pediatric Accreditation Council for Residency Review Committee of the American Council on Graduate Medical Education. She is a member of the advisory committee to the director, National Institutes of Health.

Krimsky, whose research has focused on the linkages between science and technology, ethics and values, and public policy, received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in physics from Brooklyn College, the City University of New York, and Purdue University, respectively, and a master's degree and doctorate in philosophy at Boston University.

Krimsky is the author of eight books, coauthor of two books, and coeditor of a collection of papers titled Social Theories of Risk (Praeger, 1992). His most recent book is a coedited volume titled Rights and Liberties in the Biotech Age: Why We Need a Genetic Bill of Rights (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2005).

Krimsky has published more than 160 essays and reviews in books and journals, is associate editor of Accountability in Research, and serves on the editorial and advisory boards of several journals. Krimsky served on the National Institutes of Health's Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee from 1978 to 1981. He chaired the Committee on Scientific Freedom and Responsibility for the AAAS from 1988 to 1992. He serves on the board of directors for the Council for Responsible Genetics and as a fellow of the Hastings Center on Bioethics. He also has been elected a fellow of the AAAS for "seminal scholarship exploring the normative dimensions and moral implications of science in its social context."

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