Mildred Cho, assistant professor of bioethics in the Center for Bioethics and the Department of Molecular and Cellular Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, will speak on "Entrepreneurism and Scholarly Exchange," Monday, March 30, at Virginia Tech (4 p.m. in 30 Pamplin Hall).
"Academic-industry relationships are increasing in number and diversity, and have the potential to help develop knowledge and technology for public good. However, the different goals of academia and industry may clash over the issue of timely and thorough dissemination of scientific information," says Cho. The purpose of her seminar is to encourage thinking about the long term effects that academic-industry relations might have on scholarly exchange and bodies of scientific knowledge.
Cho did post-doctoral training in health policy as a Pew Fellow at the Institute for Health Policy Studies at the University of California, San Francisco and at the Palo Alto VA Center for Health Care Evaluation. Her major interests are ethical and social impacts of genetic testing and gene therapy, and how conflicts of interest affect the conduct of clinical research. She was a consultant to the National Institutes of Health - Department of Energy Task Force on Genetic Testing. Her publications include writings on conflict of interest for professional publications such as Lancet and The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Cho's visit to Virginia Tech is a part of the "Scholarship in the Electronic World" seminar series sponsored by Research and Graduate Studies to address issues, opportunities, and conflicts that have arisen as universities try to make the best use of the Internet to share the results of research. Speaker information and links to abstracts and follow-up is available at http://www.rgs.vt.edu/resmag/seminars.html.
For more information about the seminar series, contact John Eaton, Associate Provost for Graduate Studies at Virginia Tech, 540/231-5645 or eaton@vt.edu.