Mid-Atlantic Regional Conference '07

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Conference Agenda

Speaker Biographies

George J. Annas

George J. Annas is professor and chair, Department of Health Law, Bioethics & Human Rights, Boston University School of Public Health, and professor, Boston University School of Law, and Boston University School of Medicine. He holds degrees from Harvard College, Harvard Law School, and Harvard School of Public Health. He has written or edited 17 books including The Rights of Patients and American Bioethics, and writes a regular feature for the New England Journal of Medicine on "Health Law, Ethics, and Human Rights," most recently on force-feeding hunger strikers at Guantanamo.

He is the cofounder of Global Lawyers and Physicians, a transnational NGO promoting health and human rights, a member of the Institute of Medicine, a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a board member of the Council for Responsible Genetics. Most relevant to his presentation, he is the co-author of the "Genetic Privacy Act," which, among other things, makes it clear that individuals own their DNA and that an individual's DNA should not be analysed, stored, or used without their informed consent.

Richard Buchanan

Richard Buchanan is Professor of Design and former Head of the School of Design at Carnegie Mellon University. His work focuses on the theory and practice of design and the application of design thinking to new areas of professional practice. He teaches courses in information and communication design, industrial design, interaction design, and the design of human and cultural systems. He is an editor of Design Issues, an international journal of design history, theory, and criticism published by the M.I.T. Press. He is also a past President of the Design Research Society, an international learned society founded in the United Kingdom and serving a multidisciplinary network of design researchers in 35 countries. Professor Buchanan received his A.B. and Ph.D. from the Committee on the Analysis of Ideas and the Study of Methods at the University of Chicago.

Jim Osborne

Jim “Oz” Osborn is Executive Director of the Medical Robotics Technology Center at Carnegie Mellon, as well as MERITS of Pittsburgh; a program to stimulate collaborations between clinical and technological researchers. He is also the coordinator of the University Life Science Initiative for Carnegie Mellon. Previously, he founded a regional economic development group, the Pittsburgh Robotics Initiative. From 1985 through 1999, he held research and management positions in Carnegie Mellon’s Robotics Institute and led several extensive robotics R&D projects sponsored by the US DOE, NASA, and industry. His work includes the first robot to explore an active volcano and robots for the investigation of the Chernobyl and Three Mile Island nuclear incidents. He has served as a board member of several professional society robotics divisions, chaired two technical conferences, and authored 25 papers and technical reports on robotic systems and applications. He holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical and biomedical engineering and a master’s degree in civil and biomedical engineering, both from Carnegie Mellon. A lifelong Pittsburgher, he lives with his wife and two daughters in Oakmont, PA.