NEW DIRECTOR EXCITED TO LEAD CENTER FOR APPLIED ETHICS

MENOMONIE, Wis., Feb. 2 -- The University of Wisconsin-Stout issued the following news release:

Elizabeth Buchanan brings a passion for ethics and a wealth of experience to University of Wisconsin-Stout as the new director of the Center for Applied Ethics.

Buchanan began her duties as the endowed chair Tuesday, Feb. 1. She is looking forward to working with students, faculty and staff and the Menomonie-area community.

"Stout has such a strong reputation for applied science and research, and ethics must be a part of that. I was attracted here to help strengthen an already wonderful campus and community," Buchanan said.

"As a colleague of mine once wrote, 'nothing is more important than the way we treat each other.' At its core, ethics allows us to think long and hard about being 'good' people and good professionals. Stout values this way of thinking."

Buchanan plans to offer workshops and seminars on ethics, continue to develop ethics across the curriculum and make herself available as a guest lecturer in classes.

"Dr. Buchanan will be actively working with our faculty to integrate ethics content into our courses and programs. We're excited to have her on campus," said Provost Julie Furst-Bowe.

Buchanan also plans to write grants and continue applied ethics research, especially in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Buchanan has received more than $500,000 in grants from the National Science Foundation in the past few years.

"I want to contribute to the campus community in its teaching, research and service to work to better ourselves, our community, our professions and our broader environment," Buchanan said. "In my way of thinking, ethics is about what's possible; it is not about what you can't do."

"Students need to understand the complexities of this increasingly global, technologically mediated world, and one way to help this understanding is through ethics," she said.

Buchanan comes to UW-Stout from UW-Milwaukee. She was director of the Center for Information Policy Research at UW-Milwaukee from 2006 to 2010 and taught in the UW-Milwaukee School of Information Studies from 2000 to 2010.

She has double bachelor's degrees from Rutgers University and a master's and doctorate from UW-Milwaukee.

In 2008 and 2009, Buchanan was a research fellow at the University of Oxford's e-Research Center in Oxford, England. In January she was in Austria as a visiting lecturer in computer ethics at the Upper Austria University of Applied Sciences.

Professionally, Buchanan is co-executive director for the International Society for Ethics and Information Technology, a board member for the Association of Internet Researchers, an associate editor for the Journal of Empirical Research and Human Research Ethics and is on the editorial board of the International Review of Information Ethics.

The Center for Applied Ethics at UW-Stout was founded in 2008 as a result of an anonymous donation to the Stout Foundation. It promotes ethics in the curriculum, professional development related to ethics and outreach activities that provide all UW-Stout graduates with a substantive ethics experience. The center also promotes ethical discussion and conduct in the university, community and region.

"To have an active center of applied ethics is a privilege for a university," Buchanan said.

Buchanan replaces the center's first director, Professor Tim Shiell, who has returned to the English and philosophy department.

The Center for Applied Ethics is in room 430 of the Robert S. Swanson Learning Center. For more information, go to http://www.uwstout.edu/ethicscenter/, e-mail ethicscenter@uwstout.edu or contact Buchanan at 715-232-5186, buchanane@uwstout.edu. For any query with respect to this article or any other content requirement, please contact Editor at htsyndication@hindustantimes.com