PROGRAM COMMITTEE

Robert T. Pennock

Chair of the Program Committee
Sigma Xi President-Elect

Affiliation: Michigan State University 

Robert T. Pennock is a University Distinguished Professor at Michigan State University, where he is on the faculty of Lyman Briggs College, the Departments of Philosophy and Computer Science & Engineering, and the Ecology, Evolution and Behavior program.

His research involves questions at the intersection of evolutionary biology, cognitive science, and the scientific character. He is the principal investigator of the Scientific Virtues Project and of the BEACON Center for the Study of Evolution in Action. Pennock is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a Sigma Xi Distinguished Lecturer, and a National Associate of the National Academies of Science. 

The author of over a hundred articles in philosophy, science, and education, his book Tower of Babel: The Evidence against the New Creationism was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. His latest book is An Instinct for Truth: Curiosity and the Moral Character of Science. 

Alex Arnold

Affiliation: Templeton Foundation

Alex Arnold is Director of Philosophy and Theology at the John Templeton Foundation. There he has overseen a portfolio of grants that help philosophers and theologians engage a wide variety of scientific disciplines as they inquire into the perennial and fundamental big questions about the world and humanity’s place in it. He is keen to see the institutions of science continually refined and improved, so as to generate understandings of the world that stimulate human curiosity and benefit human life. He received a BA in philosophy from the University of California, Irvine, and a PhD in philosophy from the University of Notre Dame.  

Stephanie J. Bird

Affiliation: Science and Engineering Ethics Journal 

Stephanie J. Bird, PhD is a laboratory-trained neuroscientist whose professional interests are two-fold: the ethical, legal and societal implications of scientific research (especially neuroscience); and education in the responsible conduct of research and other professional responsibilities of scientists and engineers. She is a co-founder and former Editor-in-Chief of Science and Engineering Ethics, an international publication established in 1994 that explores ethical issues of concern to scientists and engineers. The journal has dealt with a range of topics associated with research and engineering practice (e.g., authorship, data management, and mentorship), communicating science within and beyond the science and technology communities, integrating ethics into science and engineering education and practice, and the societal impacts of science and technology. 

Dr. Bird was formerly Special Assistant to both the Provost and Vice President for Research of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where she taught in her areas of expertise, including the responsible conduct of research, and the societal implications of science, and she developed educational programs that address ethical issues in research and the professional responsibilities of scientists and engineers. She lectures, conducts workshops and is a consultant to government agencies, institutions of higher learning, professional societies, and law firms. She is an advisor for the Online Ethics Center. She is also an active member of the Society for Neuroscience where she was a member, and also chaired, the Social Issues Committee. In addition, Dr. Bird is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), a Fellow and former President of the Association for Women in Science (AWIS), and an active member of the Association of Practical and Professional Ethics, the International Neuroethics Society, and Sigma Xi.  

Dena Plemmons 

Affiliation: University of California, Riverside

Dena Plemmons is the Director of the Research Ethics Education Program and adjunct Associate Professor, both appointments of which are in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Riverside. She is an anthropologist by training but made a mid-career shift to research on research integrity and curriculum design and development over 15 years ago. Her research focuses broadly on best practices in research integrity education, both nationally and internationally, and in the development of meaningful curricula for research ethics education. She is the current chair-elect for the Executive Board of the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics (APPE); a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS); Editor-in-Chief for the peer-reviewed Springer Nature journal Science and Engineering Ethics; and PI or co-PI on grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Office of Research Integrity (ORI), and National Science Foundation (NSF).

Plemmons is the PI on an NSF-funded grant being conducted in cooperation with Sigma Xi to explore perceptions and practices of authorship in international collaborations, and to more fully identify the sources of conflict and misunderstanding in a wide range of fields and cultural backgrounds.

Subrata Saha

Affiliation: University of Washington

Dr. Subrata Saha is an Affiliate Professor in the Department of Restorative Dentistry and an Affiliate Instructor in the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at the University of Washington in Seattle, WA. He is a Courtesy Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Florida International University in Miami, FL and was a faculty member at Yale University, LSU Medical Center, Loma Linda University, Clemson University, Alfred University, and SUNY Downstate Medical Center. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Long-Term Effects of Medical Implants and the Editor-in-Chief of Ethics in Biology, Engineering and Medicine, An International Journal. He founded the Southern Biomedical Engineering Conference in 1982 and has organized the 1st, 5th, 10th, and 22nd conferences in 1982, 1986, 1998, and 2003 respectively. Dr. Saha also founded the International Conference on Ethical Issues in Biomedical Engineering in 1997 at Clemson University and has organized all nine previous meetings.

With 45+ years in academic research, he has published over 142 papers in journals, 46 book chapters and edited volumes, 398 papers in conference proceedings, and 178 abstracts. He is the recipient of many distinguished awards for his contributions to science, and is a Fellow of the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES), the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), Sigma Xi, and the New York Academy of Medicine. Dr. Saha is the Conference Chair of the 10th International Conference on Ethics in Biology, Engineering, and Medicine, to be held in Seattle, November 13-14, 2021.

Nancy E. Snow

Affiliation: University of Oklahoma

Dr. Snow is Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Institute for the Study of Human Flourishing at the University of Oklahoma. She was co-Director of The Self, Motivation & Virtue Project, a $2.6 million research initiative on the moral self, and is currently the Principal Investigator of The Self, Virtue, and Public Life Project, a $3.9 million research initiative. She is the author of Virtue as Social Intelligence: An Empirically Grounded Theory (Routledge, 2009) and over forty-five papers on virtue and ethics more broadly. She has also edited or co-edited six volumes: In the Company of Others: Perspectives on Community, Family, and Culture (Rowman & Littlefield 1996); Legal Philosophy: Multiple Perspectives (Mayfield, 1999), co-edited with Larry May and Angela Bolte; Stem Cell Research: New Frontiers in Science and Ethics (Notre Dame, 2004); Cultivating Virtue: Perspectives from Philosophy, Theology, and Psychology (Oxford, 2014), The Philosophy and Psychology of Character and Happiness (Routledge, 2014), co-edited with Franco Trivigno; and Developing the Virtues: Integrating Perspectives, co-edited with Julia Annas and Darcia Narvaez (Oxford, 2016). She is the editor of The Oxford Handbook of Virtue (2018), and the series editor of “The Virtues,” a fifteen-volume interdisciplinary series on virtues published by Oxford University Press. She is the co-author, with Jennifer Cole Wright and Michael T. Warren, of Understanding Virtue: Theory and Measurement (Oxford University Press, 2021), and the author of Contemporary Virtue Ethics (Cambridge University Press, 2020). She is currently writing two monographs. Virtue, Democracy, and Online Media, a co-edited volume with Maria Silvia Vaccarezza, is in press at Routledge.

Sigma Xi Staff

Eman Ghanem

eghanem@sigmaxi.org
Staff Liaison
Affiliation: Sigma Xi 

Eman Ghanem is the director of programs at Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society. Prior to Sigma Xi, she was the co-director of Student and External Relations for the Freshman Research Initiative at The University of Texas–Austin, where she also served as the research educator for the Supramolecular Sensors Stream. Ghanem holds a PhD in biochemistry from Texas A&M University. 

Fenella Saunders

fsaunders@sigmaxi.org
Affiliation: Sigma Xi 

Fenella Saunders is the editor in chief of American Scientist, where she has been on staff since 2005 and served as managing editor and executive editor as well. She was previously a science writer/editor for New York University School of Medicine's publications office and associate editor of their magazine, NYU Physician. Additionally, she spent eight years at DISCOVER magazine, where she was an associate editor and online editor. A coauthor of Popular Science's Space 2100: To Mars and Beyond in the Century to Come (Time Inc., 2003), she has also freelanced for Popular Mechanics, Scholastic, The Learning Channel, and The Discovery Channel.

 Jamie L. Vernon