Ethics in Engineering talk Monday at Laboratory's Bradbury Science Museum

Contact: Steve Sandoval, steves@lanl.gov, (505) 665-9206 (04-008)

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LOS ALAMOS, N.M., Feb. 19, 2004 -- "Ethics in Engineering" will be discussed by Ray Larsen, of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, at a talk Monday evening, Feb. 23, at Los Alamos National Laboratory's Bradbury Science Museum. Larsen speaks at 6 p.m.

The Los Alamos Section of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers is sponsoring the talk, which is free and open to the public. The talk is being held in conjunction with National Engineering Week, Feb. 22-28.

According to Larsen, common complaints cover everything from plagiarism of work and publications to forgery of engineer-certified documentation. He said engineers may be asked to fudge test data and be part of a cover-up. Or someone may have been fired for ethical behavior or just need clarification of options when caught in difficulties.

Larsen has headed many committees and major conferences and currently is the deputy head of the next linear collider research project and the assistant director of electronics, power conversion and software engineering at Stanford. A member of the IEEE Ethics Committee from 1994-96, he also served on the IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society and is currently their liaison member for the IEEE Society for Social Implications of Technology. He is a Life Fellow of the IEEE. He has been at Stanford Linear Accelerator Center since 1962 except for the period 1988-95, when he was president and chief executive officer of an electronics instrumentation startup, Analytek Ltd.

Larsen also will look at what happens when a member is caught in an ethical dilemma with an employer, co-worker or member of the public. He will review how the IEEE community currently addresses these types of issues and discuss some current examples and their implications for IEEE members both in the U.S. and as part of a transnational community.

The Bradbury Science Museum is located at 15th Street and Central Avenue in downtown Los Alamos. Museum hours apart from special events are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Friday and 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday through Monday.

The Bradbury Science Museum is part of Los Alamos' Public Affairs Office.

For more information, contact Pat Berger at 665-0896.

Los Alamos National Laboratory is operated by the University of California for the National Nuclear Security Administration of the U.S. Department of Energy and works in partnership with NNSA's Sandia and Lawrence Livermore national laboratories to support NNSA in its mission.

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