Join the Lewis College of Human Sciences in celebrating the retirement of Dr. Vivian Weil, Director of the Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions at IIT, from 4:30-6 pm on Wednesday, April 30, 2014 in the IIT Tower, 14th floor. RSVP by April 10.

Weil plans to retire on August 31, 2014 after 42 years of service to the University. She received her A.B. and M.A. from the University of Chicago and her Ph.D. from the University of Illinois, Chicago. During the 1990-91 academic year, she served as Director of the Ethics and Values Studies Program of the National Science Foundation. Weil is a philosopher by training, working on theoretical problems of human action and responsibility and specializing on issues of professional responsibility, primarily in engineering and science. She was a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, on the Governing Board of the National Institute for Engineering Ethics, and on the Executive Committee of the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics. She has served on the editorial boards of Teaching Philosophy, The International Journal of Applied Philosophy, Science, Technology and Human Values, and Science and Engineering Ethics. Weil is author of numerous publications, including a report on Engineering Ethics in Engineering Education, and work on normative issues of data sharing, secrecy and openness with respect to the dissemination of scientific and technical information in the context of intellectual property and national security restrictions.

The Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions (CSEP) was founded at IIT in 1976 in order to promote the research and teaching of moral and ethical quandaries in the professions. The CSEP was the first interdisciplinary center on ethics to focus exclusively on the professions and continues to be one of the leading think tanks in the nation for professional ethical questions. Weil has served as the director of the CSEP since 1986, first as acting director for one year. She is a past director of the Ethics and Values Studies program for the National Science Foundation. In 1993, CSEP faculty member Dr. Robert Ladenson started the Ethics Bowl, an intercollegiate competition featuring two teams of undergraduates tasked with answering challenging ethical-related questions drawn from different professional and social environments. This event has grown from an intramural competition initially, to including over 100 universities competing at both the regional and national levels. In 1996, the CSEP received a grant from the National Science Foundation to feature its extensive collection of ethical codes on the Internet. The CSEP now maintains over 1,000 ethical codes online from various organizations including professional, business, and government.