April 5, 2006
We are pleased to announce the much-anticipated publication of a new book by one of our own! Ethics of Emerging Technologies: Scientific Facts and Moral Challenges, by Dr.’s Thomas and Miriam Budinger, is a comprehensive inquiry into the ethical issues presented by modern technologies.
Dr. Thomas Budinger was the Founding Chair of the Department of Bioengineering, and is currently a Professor of Bioengineering and Electrical Engineering & Computer Science at Berkeley and of Radiology at UCSF, and Director of the Department of Functional Imaging at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Co-author Dr. Miriam Budinger is a pediatrician and physician scientist with a career that has focused on adolescent medicine, infectious diseases, and the design and conduct of clinical trials in immunocompromised patients. She has been a Visiting Scholar at the University of California, Berkeley.
This work is the culmination of the Budingers’ distinguished professional careers in research and medicine and longstanding interest in the ethics of research and technology. Dr. Tom Budinger developed Bioengineering 100, Ethics in Science and Engineering, a course for undergraduates at Berkeley exploring complex ethical issues in biomedicine. The authors developed online instructional tools to accompany the book, downloadable from the publisher, Wiley Higher Education.
The book also represents a partnership with The Whitaker Foundation, philanthropic supporters of biomedical engineering education and research, who provided funding for the preparation of the manuscript.
The ethics of technology is an issue of increasing importance to scientists and policy makers, and ethical issues are attracting ever more attention from the news media and public. This book is bound to become a key text for bioengineers and others concerned with related public policy issues. The book is available at Amazon.com, and at the UC Berkeley Bookstore.
Congratulations Dr. B!