Biographical Sketch: Caroline Whitbeck
Caroline Whitbeck is a philosopher of science, technology, and medicine, and she chairs the OEC Advisory Group. She is Emerita Elmer G. Beamer-Hubert H. Schneider Professor in Ethics at Case Western Reserve University and Emerita Professor of philosophy.
Whitbeck holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Wellesley College, a master's degree from Boston University, and a Ph.D. in philosophy from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She was elected Fellow of the AAAS for her work in engineering ethics, and was a Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar in 1994-95.
Whitbeck combines research and teaching interests in the philosophy of science, technology, and medicine; practical ethics; and feminist philosophy, with interest in education of a diverse student body for careers in engineering and the science-based professions. Her work in the philosophy of science extends from the philosophy of physics through the philosophy of medicine and medical research to engineering. She also made significant contributions to feminist philosophy and to medical ethics in the 1970s and 1980s. In the 1980s and 1990s, she developed the analogy between ethical problems and design problems, in particular, problems of engineering design and research design. She pioneered active learning methods in the teaching of engineering ethics and the responsible conduct of research, especially methods that place the learner in the position of the agent who must actually respond to the problem (rather than in the position of a judge who merely evaluates responses that have already been constructed). Major themes in her recent work in professional ethics are trust and trustworthiness, responsibility and negligence, and ethics of collaboration in engineering research and practice.
In 1995 she edited a special issue of Science and Engineering Ethics on trustworthy research. She is the editor for a special issue of the International Journal of Engineering Education on engineering ethics from August, 2001. Whitbeck serves on the advisory board of Professional Ethics and on the Editorial Board of Science and Engineering Ethics. Her book, Ethics in Engineering Practice and Research, was published by Cambridge University Press in spring 1998, and the Japanese translation of the first half of that book, translated by Hiroshi Iino and Jun Fudano, was published by Misuzu Shobo in December 2000.