Peter and all CHAS members

About 5 – 7 years ago (pre UCLA) Mirinda Wu (Past President ACS) led the ACS Committee on Grants & Awards to adopt a specific statement on the safety performance of nominees for all ACS National Awards. It took a bit of time to make the system workable, but today, if someone wanted to nominate a colleague, and that colleague had had a big lab fire, that would need to be declared,

Under this system, the review team could still make the award, but at least, they would do so with full awareness of the issue.

The other issue within ACS is that the Chemist’s Code of Conduct addresses safety in the first paragraph, but the Committee on Professional Conduct has no teeth.  See my recent JCHAS News & Views on this topic

Stay tuned to this AAAS issue, it has the potential to cause significant improvements in the incorporation of safety into the institutional culture.

Neal

I suspect people on this list know the answers to these questions:

With respect to the AAAS fellow discussion, I know that ACS and its divisions also elect fellows.

When ACS or one of its divisions nominate a fellow, would the nominee’s safety record be considered? Is safety a criteria for election as an ACS fellow? If not, I hope that it will be in the future.

For comparison, When ACS or one of its divisions nominate a fellow, would a nominee found to partake in scientific misconduct be considered? For example, would falsification of published research data be a criteria for election as an ACS fellow? I would guess it is now a criteria. Isn’t safety as important as scientific misconduct?

Is Dr. Harran an ACS fellow? Is Dr. Harran a fellow on an ACS Division? If so, when was he elected?

Thanks,

Pete

Peter A. Reinhardt

Director, Office of Environmental Health & Safety

Yale University

135 College St., Suite 100

New Haven, CT   06510-2411

(203) 737-2123

peter.reinhardt**At_Symbol_Here**yale.edu