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Contact us:

Michelle Goncalves
Center for Public Policy and Admin
Gordon Hall, 2nd Floor
418 North Pleasant St.
UMass Amherst
Amherst, MA 01002

mgoncalves <at> pubpol.umass.edu
413-577-2354

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
spacerIDEESE: People

The IDEESE project brings together faculty from physics, electrical and computer engineering, computer science, political and policy sciences, philosophy and public health.  Members of the research and development team have experience developing and teaching highly successful ethics and societal implications courses in science and engineering and in social and policy sciences.  The team combines expertise and experience in content knowledge, pedagogical methods, cases, evaluation, and web-based tools for teaching international dimensions of ethics. 

 

fountain

 

Jane Fountain, PI
Jane E. Fountain, Professor of Political Science and Public Policy, is founder and Director of the National Center for Digital Government and Director of the Science, Technology, and Society Initiative. Her research is focused at the intersection of institutions, global information and communication technologies, and governance. Fountain is the author of Building the Virtual State: Information Technology and Institutional Change (Brookings Institution Press, 2001), which was awarded an Outstanding Academic Title 2002 by Choice, and has been translated into and published in Chinese, Portuguese and Japanese. Her current book project, Women in the Information Age (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming), focuses on gender, institutions and technology. She has published research on information and communication technology and the development of networked forms of organization and governance in Governance, Technology in Society, Science and Public Policy, The Communications of the ACM, and other scholarly journals. Fountain has served on several governing bodies convened to foster research on information and communication technologies and governance. She holds a double PhD from Yale University in organizational behavior and in political science.
Website

 

peterson

 

MJ Peterson, co-PI
MJ Peterson is a Professor of Political Science. Her research interests focus on understanding what conditions and factors facilitate or inhibit international cooperation among states, among states and non-state actors, or among nonstate actors. Peterson was President of the New England Political Science Association from 2005-2006 and Vice President from 2003-2005. She has been a member of the editorial committee for Global Governance since 1993 and is the author of International Regimes for the Final Frontier and The United Nations General Assembly. She holds a PhD in Political Science from Columbia University. Peterson is leading the development of ethics modules and creating teaching guides for faculty who will use the modules.
Website

 

achermann

 

Marc Achermann, co-PI
Marc Achermann is an Assistant Professor of Physics. He has developed and teaches Ethics for Scientists and Engineers, a graduate course at UMass Amherst associated with the Center for Hierarchical Manufacturing IGERT.  Achermann's research focuses on the optical spectroscopy of nanoscale materials, specifically semiconductor, metal and organic nanostructures. He studies the carrier and energy relaxation dynamics of nanostructures and the dynamics of interfacial interactions in hybrid excitonic/plasmonic materials. Understanding this behavior in functional nanomaterials will promote the implementation of these materials in solid-state lighting, sensor, and light-harvesting applications (e.g. solar cells). In addition to standard, steady-state optical characterization, our experiments rely on various time-resolved optical spectroscopy techniques in combination with far- and near-field optical microscopies. Achermann is piloting modules in his IGERT course and assisting in the development of modules and cases.
Website

 

stamps

 

Paula Stamps, co-PI
Paula L. Stamps is Professor of Public Health.  She received an MS in Heath Administration and a PhD in Human Ecology, both from the University of Oklahoma School of Public Health.  Her area of research is development of statistically valid measurement instruments that may be used in the health field.   She is best known for her research in the field of measuring level of job satisfaction of nurses.  Her Index of Work Satisfaction is accepted as a quality indicator by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organizations, and also by the American Nurses Credentialing Program for magnet hospitals.  Both of her books in this area have received Book of the Year awards from the American Nursing Association.  She has also conducted extensive research in the area of measuring level of satisfaction of physicians, publishing both a book and several articles in this field.  Her recent activities include development of a course in bioterrorism, emphasizing the challenge emergency preparedness poses to the field of public health.  She was awarded one of the University's prestigious Distinguished Teaching awards.  In addition to bioterrorism, she also offers courses in program evaluation, ethics, research methods, and medical care organization. Stamps is leading the evaluation of this project.
Website

 

woolf

 

Beverly Woolf, co-PI
Beverly Woolf is an Associate Research Professor of Computer Science and Director of the Center for Knowledge Acquisition. Her Center has developed nearly fifty online tools, tutorials and materials using a variety of search, inquiry, and other advanced pedagogical and computer methods.  Her research focuses on building systems to effectively train, explain and advise users and the systems she develops integrate extended multimedia capabilities with knowledge about the user, domain and dialogue to produce real-time performance support and on-demand advisory and tutoring systems. The tutoring systems use intelligent interfaces, inferencing mechanisms, cognitive models and modifiable software to improve a computer's communicative abilities. These systems have been tested with students, trainers and other client bases, deployed in education and industry, and demonstrated in more than 50 American industrial, military and academic sites and 8 foreign countries.
Website

 

anderson

 

Neal G. Anderson, Senior Researcher
Neal G. Anderson has served on the faculty of the Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Department since 1988. He has taught ECE courses at all levels - from freshman through advanced graduate - and has been engaged in curriculum issues and other aspects of instructional program development and coordination throughout his tenure at UMass. He developed, and continues to coordinate, a required junior seminar course in ECE designed provide a broad overview of technical and non-technical dimensions of professional practice, including ethics and societal impacts of technology. He is currently the coordinator of the Departmental Honors Program for the ECE Department and a member of the ECE Instructional Development Committee. Professor Anderson received the UMass Distinguished Teaching Award in 2006 and the College of Engineering Outstanding Teaching Award in 1993, and he has twice received the College of Engineering Outstanding Advisor Service Award. Anderson will assist in the development and piloting of modules and act as a liaison to the College of Engineering.
Website

 

murray

 

Tom Murray, Consultant
Dr. Thomas J. Murray is a consultant and research scientist in the areas of Cognitive Tools, Educational Technology, Online Collaboration, and Knowledge Engineering. His research and teaching work are primarily at Hampshire College (Schools of Cognitive Science and Natural Science) and the University of Massachusetts (Adjunct Faculty member of the School of Education and R&D in the Computer Science Department and the Center for Knowledge Communication.)  He is currently an independent consultant. Recent interests and work include, on the practical side: supporting higher quality communication, collaboration, and decision making in online communities (see Perspegrity link above), and on the theoretical side: studies in areas of applied philosophy, related to "epistemological indeterminacy" and cognitive tools supporting metacognition and ethics-oriented reflective dialog (see publications in Perspegrity link above). Murray has degrees in educational technology (EdD, MEd), computer science (MS), and physics (BS). He is on the editorial review boards of two international journals, the International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education, and Integral Review.
Website

 

Sandler

 

Ronald Sandler, Ethicist
Ronald Sandler is an assistant professor of philosophy in the Department of Philosophy and Religion, a researcher in the Nanotechnology and Society Research Group, and a research associate in the Environmental Justice Research Collaborative at Northeastern University. His primary areas of research are environmental ethics, ethics and technology, ethical theory, and Spinoza. He is author of Character and Environment (Columbia University Press) and co-editor of Environmental Justice and Environmentalism: The Social Justice Challenge to the Environmental Movement (MIT Press) and Environmental Virtue Ethics (Rowman and Littlefield).
Website


 

ake

 

John Ake, Research Assistant (2007-2009)
John Ake is one of the project’s Research Assistants. He holds a Bachelor degree in English from Wake Forest and is currently pursuing dual MBA and MPPA degrees from the Isenberg School of Management and the Center for Public Policy and Administration. Ake provides research assistance in preparing, creating, refining, and evaluating the educational modules and case studies.

 

white

 

Paul White, Research Assistant (2008)
Paul White is one of the project's Research Assistants. He holds a dual Bachelor degree from Saginaw Valley State University (MI) in political science and history and is currently pursuing his doctorate in political science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. White provides research assistance in preparing and creating detailed chronologies and case studies.

 

ercan

 

Ilke Ercan, Research Assistant (2009)
Ilke Ercan is one of the project's Research Assistants. She is currently a PhD student in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department and received a M.S.E.C.E. with concentration of electrophysics in 2008 from UMass Amherst. Ercan holds a B.S. in Physics and a minor degree in Philosophy and History of Science from Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey. Ercan works with Professor Peterson developing case studies and other educational materials.

 

keister

 

Sarah Keister, Research Assistant (2009-2010)
Sarah Keister is one of the project's research assistants.  A native of suburban Chicago, she holds a Bachelor's Degree in political science and sociology from Illinois Wesleyan University. She is currently pursuing an MPPA at the Center for Public Policy & Administration.

 

gerhardt

 

Kyle Gerhardt, Research Assistant (2010)
Kyle Gerhardt is one of the project's research assistants. Originally from a suburb outside of Boston, he is currently enrolled in the University of Massachusetts at Amherst's undergraduate program, intending to graduate with a double major in Philosophy and Economics. His primary focus in study is directed towards ethics in technology and information technology, and plans to continue his studies in a graduate law school setting.

 

nowak

 

Spike Nowak, Research Assistant (2010)
Spike Nowak is one of the project's research assistants. He is from Monson, Massachusetts and is currently pursing bachelor's degrees in Economics and Political Science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He is particularly interested in international economics and is the president of the UMass International Relations Club.

 

corcoran

 

Kathryn Corcoran (2010)
Kathryn Corcoran is one of the project's research assistants. Originally from the Boston area, Kathryn is pursuing a Bachelors in Political Science and History, with an International Relations Certificate and concentration in Arabic. Her interests are primarily cyberwar and international security. Kathryn is Chair of the Curriculum Committee of the Political Science Undergraduate Board, Cluster Office Manager of Gorman/Wheeler Cluster in Central Residence Area, and this semester I was a research assistant for Professor Peterson on another project.

 

losso

 

Nicholas Losso (2010)
Nicholas Losso is one of the project's research assistants. He grew up in Marlboro, Massachussetts and is now an undergraduate at the University of Massachusetts working towards graduating with a double major in Mathematics and Anthropology. His focus is in applied mathematics and physical anthropology, with an interest in forensic anthropology.

 

ocampo

 

Clarissa Ocampo (2010-2011)
Clarissa Ocampo joins the University of Massachusetts Amherst campus as a Post-Baccalaureate student in Communication Disorders/Speech Pathology, working towards a Graduate degree in Speech Pathology.  She has a Master’s Degree in Music from The Juilliard School in New York.  She is a professional Opera Singer who continues to travel the world to perform in Broadway and Opera productions.  Clarissa also worked as an Office Administrator for the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.   

 

goncalves

 

Michelle Sagan Goncalves, Program Manager
Michelle Sagan Gonçalves is the Program Manager for the IDEESE Project. She holds a Masters degree in Public Policy and Administration from the Center for Public Policy and Administration at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a Bachelor of Arts from Providence College. Gonçalves provides support for the projects multidisciplinary collaboration, offers research assistance, and ensure compliance with timeline tasks and milestones.

 

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Funding for the International Dimensions of Ethics Education in Science and Engineering Project comes from the National Science Foundation through grant number 0734887. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed here are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

   

For additional STS Research Clusters, visit our Research Page.

 

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