Washington, DC -- March 5, 1999 -- Former CIA Director John Deutch and Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY) will join government, industry, and academic representatives in a public colloquium about secrecy in science March 29 on the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The colloquium, cosponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and MIT, will bring together individuals with expertise in a number of fields, such as health research, intellectual property, and encryption to examine past and present issues in secrecy.
Historically, the openness of scientific exchange has often been in tension with governmental concerns for national security. Today, issues of secrecy in science more often address the role of non-disclosure agreements between scientists, research institutions and corporations. Non-disclosure agreements can guard a company or university's intellectual property interests. However, these agreements raise issues related to the free and open communication of scientific results and the urgency of reporting on research that has an impact on public health safety.
EVENT: Secrecy in Science: Exploring University, Industry, and Government Relationships
WHEN: March 29, 1999, 9:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m., open to the public, no registration fee
WHERE: Kresge Auditorium, MIT Campus, Cambridge, MA
PUBLIC CONTACT INFORMATION: Amy Crumpton, AAAS, 202-326-6791, acrumpto@aaas.org, website: http://www.aaas.org/spp/secrecy/AAASMIT.htm
Some important questions that the conference will address are:
What is the historical context for examining secrecy in science? How has it changed from being a situation enforced by the government to one self-imposed at the institutional level? Where are university-industry partnerships headed in terms of secrecy arrangements? John Deutch, MIT chemistry professor and former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, will present the important issues that have surrounded secrecy. UC, Berkeley molecular biologist Howard Schachman will examine the evolution of secrecy from national security mandates, to legal non-disclosure agreements to self-imposed secrecy by scientists. Mary Good, president of Venture Capital Investors and president-elect of AAAS, will focus on what future issues might arise in the relationship between industry, government and universities.
What is the current view of secrecy from the federal government? Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan led the bipartisan Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy, created by Congress in 1994. The Commission reviewed the way that the federal government classifies and declassifies information as well as the system for issuing security clearances. Sen. Moynihan is also the author of Secrecy: The American Experience, published in 1998. He will present a view from Capitol Hill.
How does the commercial value of research information affect the traditional communication between researchers? Robert Cook-Deegan, Director of the National Cancer Policy Board of the National Academy of Sciences, will speak on the dependence of technological advancement on the regular flow of information. What are the effects on academic communication when industries cut off this normal flow of information, particularly in genomics, DNA-based patenting, and computing? Experts in intellectual property from the industry, university, and legal arenas will discuss the sharing of research data when intellectual property rights are taken into consideration.
What tensions regarding secrecy exist between federal agencies and the research community? Susan Lederer, from Penn State Medical School, served on the U.S. Department of Energy panel that looked at releasing documents related to radiation experiments. Ronald Rivest, a cryptography expert at MIT, and Scott McIntosh, an official from the U.S. Department of Justice will offer differing views on the government's regulation of cryptography, an issue that is currently being litigated in three federal district courts.
Founded in 1848, AAAS represents the world's largest federation of scientists from a variety of disciplines and has more than 143,000 individual members. The association publishes the weekly, peer-reviewed journal Science and administers EurekAlert!, the online news service featuring the latest discoveries in science, medicine, and technology. Since the mid-1980s, the AAAS Scientific Freedom, Responsibility and Law Program has sponsored conferences, published case studies, and given testimony related to fraud and misconduct in science, the ethics and legal issues in genetics research, and other areas where science and society intersect.
Editor's Note: Reporters can RSVP to attend the conference by contacting Dave Amber (202-326-6434, damber@aaas.org) or Ellen Cooper (202-326-6431, ecooper@aaas.org). Background papers and articles are available online at http://www.aaas.org/spp/secrecy/AAASMIT.htm