SEI Research at Stanford University
Coordinator: Robert McGinn, PhD.,
Department of Management Science and Engineering, (professional website e-mail)
The SEI effort at Stanford focuses on ethical issues related to nanotechnology. Current projects include the refinement, update, and re-administration of the original, ground-breaking ethics and nanotechnology survey of 1,037 NNIN users, adding coverage of new ethical issues related to nanotechnology that have emerged since the initial 2005 survey. Stanford will seek an opportunity to replicate the (slightly revised) initial survey in an international context. A module on ethical issues related to nanotechnology will be developed for a projected new graduate course at Stanford on ethics, science, and technology, and may be developed into a whole course on ethics and nanotechnology. The module will incorporate case materials gathered from across the NNIN network on actual ethical issues that have arisen in NNIN labs. Materials on ethics will be developed for the training of new users of nanotechnology research labs. Finally, Stanford will contribute to mounting a scholarly conference on SEI.