News
DAVID WILKINS ELECTED TO AAAS
David Wilkins, Lester Kissel Professor of Law, Director of the Program on the Legal Profession, and Vice Dean for Global Initiatives on the Legal Profession at Harvard Law School has been elected to membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Professor Wilkins was a Faculty Fellow in Ethics in 1989-90, and became a Faculty Associate of the Ethics Center at the end of that year. Most recently, he has served on the Center's Faculty Committee since 2009.
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences, based in Cambridge, MA, is one of the nation's most prestigious honorary societies and a leading center for independent policy research. Members contribute to Academy publications and studies of science and technology policy, energy and global security, social policy and American institutions, the humanities and culture, and education.
Congratulations, David! More information
FORMER FELLOW APPOINTED TO NATIONAL ETHICS COUNCIL
Effective January 1, 2012, former Faculty Fellow, Victoria Beach, was appointed Chair of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) National Ethics Council.
According to its website, the National Ethics Council enforces the AIA's Code of Ethics, and also proposes revisions to the Code and to the Rules of Procedure.
The Council also engages in efforts to educate members about their obligations under the Code of Ethics, as well as AIA component executives and the general public about ethical issues that arise in the fields of architecture and design. Additionally, the Council conducts educational programs on ethics at the AIA's Convention, and at various other seminars and programs hosted by AIA components.
Read more here.
FORMER FELLOW, EZEKIEL EMANUEL, APPOINTED UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR AT UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
Former Senior Scholar and current University of Pennsylvania President Amy Gutmann announced the appointment of Dr. Ezekiel J. Emanuel, a globally renowned bioethicist, as the thirteenth Penn Integrates Knowledge University Professor, effective September 1, 2011.
Dr. Emanuel's title will be the Diane v.S. Levy and Robert M. Levy University Professor and the Vice Provost for Global Initiatives. His appointment will be shared between the Department of Medical Ethics & Health Policy in the Perelman School of Medicine, which he will Chair, and the Department of Health Care Management in the Wharton School. Read more
NEW BOOK BY FRANCES KAMM
June 30, 2011: Oxford University Press published a book by Professor Frances Kamm entitled Ethics for Enemies: Terror, Torture, and War. The book is based on three Uehiro Lectures given by Professor Kamm at Oxford University in 2008. The lectures were sponsored by the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics.
"Ethics for Enemies comprises three original philosophical essays on torture, terrorism, and war. F. M. Kamm deploys ethical theory in her challenging new treatments of these most controversial practical issues. First she considers the nature of torture and the various occasions on which it could occur, in order to determine why it might be wrong to torture a wrongdoer held captive, even if this were necessary to save his victims. In the second essay she considers what makes terrorism wrong--whether it is the intention to harm civilians, rather than harm to them being 'collateral damage,' or something else--and whether terrorism is always wrong. The third essay discusses whether having a right reason, in the sense of a right intention, is necessary in order for a war to be just. Kamm then examines ways in which the harms of war can be proportional to the achievement of the just cause and other goods that war can bring about, so as to make the declaration of war permissible." Read more.
FRANCES KAMM ELECTED TO AAAS
Long-time Center affiliate Frances M. Kamm was elected to the 2011 class of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Kamm was one of 212 of the world's most accomplished leaders from academia, business, public affairs, the humanities, and the arts to have been elected members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2011. Read more.
Congratulations, Frances!
CENTER RECEIVES $12.3 MILLION DOLLAR GIFT FROM MRS. LILY SAFRA
Harvard University has received a gift of $12.3 million (10 million euros) from Mrs. Lily Safra. Given in memory of her late husband, Edmond J. Safra, founder of the Republic National Bank of New York and prominent philanthropist, the gift will support the activities of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, permanently endow the graduate fellowship program, and fund the recently launched Research Lab. This personal gift from Mrs. Safra follows a donation of $10 million from the Edmond J. Safra Foundation to endow the center in 2004.
"We are grateful for this timely gift to the Edmond J. Safra Center," said Harvard President Drew Faust. "At a moment in history when many people are examining the global financial system and the role of public institutions, we will all benefit from serious research into the increasing complexity of public life and the ethical issues faced by corporate leaders."
"This gift will allow the center to build upon its remarkable success and continue to shape dialogue on critical ethical issues across the University and beyond," added Harvard Provost Steven E. Hyman.
Mrs. Safra said, "I have always considered it a wonderful privilege to be able to count myself among the Edmond J. Safra Center's friends and supporters, and I am delighted to offer this additional support for the center's vitally important work. If we truly value justice and basic human dignity, ethical questions need to be part of every field of study and every policy discussion. I know my husband would share my great pride in the Edmond J. Safra Center's tremendous contributions toward this goal-and its promise for the future."
In addition to a $10 million gift from the Edmond J. Safra Philanthropic Foundation in 2004, other previous gifts facilitated by Mrs. Safra helped endow the Edmond J. Safra Graduate Fellowships in Ethics and a Faculty Fellowship in Ethics. A portion of the new funding will fully endow the Edmond J. Safra Graduate Fellowship program and ensure that the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics' role in training younger scholars and developing future leaders in ethics will continue. Since its founding over 20 years ago, the center's fellowship programs have hosted more than 250 talented scholars, some of whom have gone on to establish ethics centers at other universities in the United States and abroad. A sampling of this year's fellowship topics includes projects on financial ties between the pharmaceutical industry and psychiatric treatment boards, determining which psychological factors predict whether whistleblowers will be praised or rejected, and understanding the interaction of policy and daily attitudes toward risk in the financial industry.
Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics director and Harvard Law School professor Lawrence Lessig, who succeeded founding director Dennis F. Thompson as the center's director in 2009, launched a new Research Lab as a major initiative designed to address fundamental problems of ethics in a way that provides benefit to institutions of government and society around the world. The lab's first project focuses on the problem of institutional corruption.
"We are enormously fortunate to have this extraordinary gift from Lily Safra," said Lessig. "The support of the Edmond J. Safra Philanthropic Foundation has already secured a permanent place for the Center for Ethics at Harvard. This gift will allow us to extend our work to important and timely questions of institutional corruption."
Mrs. Safra, a longtime member of the center's advisory council, has participated regularly in the center's seminar and public programs. She is known for her philanthropy, patronage of the arts, and longtime support for educational, scientific, medical, and humanitarian organizations around the world.
Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics
Founded in 1986 by former President Derek Bok, and led for over 20 years by Professor Dennis F. Thompson, the center encourages teaching and research about ethical issues in public and professional life. It is the core of a well-established movement at Harvard to give ethics a prominent place in the curriculum and on the agenda of research. By promoting a perspective informed by both theory and practice, the center helps to meet the growing need for teachers, scholars, and leaders who address questions of moral choice in the professions and public life more generally.
Mrs. Lily Safra
Mrs. Lily Safra shared her commitment to caring for the less fortunate with her husband, Edmond J. Safra, one of the twentieth century's most accomplished bankers and founder of the Edmond J. Safra Philanthropic Foundation. Since 2000, she has chaired this foundation, which supports hundreds of projects related to education, science and medicine, religion, culture, and humanitarian relief in over 50 countries.
In addition to funding neuroscience professorships and research positions at dozens of universities and institutes around the world, Mrs. Safra has initiated and supported many educational projects, including endowing the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University. A long and distinguished relationship with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem led to the naming of the Edmond J. Safra Campus, where the $130 million Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences is located. In an impoverished area of northern Brazil, she founded the Alfredo J. Monteverde School, which teaches science and technology to 1,000 children. Recently, she helped to establish the Institut Pedagogique Edmond J. Safra at the Mémorial de la Shoah in Paris. Mrs. Safra is honorary chairman of the International Sephardic Education Foundation (ISEF), which she established with her husband in 1977. ISEF is the largest nonprofit organization promoting higher education for gifted Israelis from disadvantaged backgrounds. In recognition of her work, Mrs. Safra has been awarded honorary doctorates from a number of universities, and she was made commandeur of the Ordre des Arts et Letters and chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur.
Contacts:
Whitney Espich
Alumni Affairs & Development, Communications
Harvard University
617-461-6211 (m)
617-496-2356 (o)
whitney_espich@harvard.edu
Seth Goldschlager
Edmond J. Safra Foundation
Publicis
+33 6 09 42 50 40 (m)
+33 1 57 32 86 25 (o)
Seth.Goldschlager@consultants.publicis.fr
PUBLICATION BY FORMER FACULTY FELLOW
Rethinking the Ethics of Clinical Research:
Widening the Lens
Clinical research requires that some people be used and possibly harmed for the benefit of others. What justifies such use of people? This book provides an in-depth philosophical analysis of several crucial issues raised by that question.
LEO STRAUSS AWARD RECIPIENT
Former Graduate Fellow, Joseph Mazor, has been awarded the 2010 Leo Strauss Award for his dissertation, "A Liberal Theory of Natural Resource Property Rights."
The Leo Strauss prize is awarded annually by the American Political Science Association for the best dissertation in the field of political philosophy.
LAWRENCE LESSIG INCLUDED IN LIST OF MOST INFLUENTIAL LAWYERS
Lawrence Lessig, the Center's Director and Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, was recently named by the National Law Journal as one of "the decade's most influential lawyers" in the category of Legal Education.
BOSTON REVIEW FEATURES TALK BY ELIOT SPITZER
The March/April 2010 issue of the Boston Review featured an adaptation of the talk given by Eliot Spitzer on Thursday, November 12, 2009, as part of the Center's series on institutional corruption.
"Every day we read the headlines, feel the tensions, observe the consequences of the recent failures of market and government. Having a serious conversation about how to remedy these failures lies at the heart of current American politics." ...read more.