The University’s Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics begins the new academic year with a new director, David H. Smith, as well as two new environmental ethicists-in-residence: husband and wife John Grim and Mary Evelyn Tucker, both prominent scholars in the fields of religion, ecology and environmental ethics.

Smith, who last year was a bioethicist-in-residence at the center, has focused on issues of ethics across the moral, religious and social spectrums. He taught from 1967 to 2003 in the Department of Religious Studies at Indiana University, where he was twice awarded teaching prizes (one voted by students and the other by faculty). In 1983 he became director of the Poynter Center for the Study of Ethics and American Institutions. The center focused on the teaching of ethics, care for the dying, research ethics, ethics and genetic testing, and corporate responsibility.

Since his retirement from Indiana University, Smith has served as a visiting professor of bioethics at Yale and the Frederick Distinguished Visiting Professor at Depauw University, where he helped start the Janet Prindle Institute of Ethics. His published works include “Partnership with the Dying,” “Health and Medicine in the Anglican Tradition” and “Entrusted: The Moral Responsibilities of Trustees.” He co-authored “Early Warning: Cases and Ethical Guidance for Presymptomatic Testing in Genetic Diseases.” He has been the lead editor of “A Christian Response to the New Genetics” and “Good Intentions: Moral Obstacles and Opportunities.”

In addition to being environmental ethicists-in-residence, Tucker and Grim have been granted five-year appointments at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies (F&ES). Tucker, who was also an environmental ethicist-in-residence last year at Yale, has been named a senior lecturer at F &ES. Grim, who last year served as a scholar-in-residence at the Institution for Social and Policy Studies, is a senior research scholar. They will work on developing the field of religion and ecology at F &ES and the University, including bringing scholars in pertinent fields to the campus. They will also teach courses and collaborate with faculty at the Yale Divinity School, the Department of Religious Studies, the Institution for Social and Policy Studies and the Center for Bioethics to explore topics such as environmental values, ethics and ecodesign.

Tucker is the author of “Worldly Wonder: Religions Enter Their Ecological Phase” and co-editor (with Grim) of “Worldviews and Ecology: Religion, Philosophy and the Environment.” She also co-edited “Buddhism and Ecology,” “Confucianism and Ecology” and “Hinduism and Ecology.” Most recently she published “The Philosophy of Qi” and edited a book of Thomas Berry’s essays titled “Evening Thoughts.” She previously taught at Bucknell University and is currently a research associate at the Harvard-Yenching Institute and the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies at Harvard.

Grim co-founded with Tucker the Forum on Religion and Ecology in 1999. The forum arose from a 10-part conference and books series at Harvard’s Center for the Study of World Religions. Before coming to Yale, both Tucker and Grim were research scholars at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley from 2001 to 2002 and again from 2004 to 2006. Grim also taught at Bucknell University from 1989 to 2005. He is the author of “The Shaman: Patterns of Religious Healing Among the Ojibway Indians” and “Indigenous Traditions and Ecology.” He is currently developing two books, “Living with Cosmology: An Approach to the Study of Religion and Ecology” (with Tucker) and “A Reader in Indigenous Religions,” which will be a collection of articles illustrating religious thought and practice among indigenous peoples of Africa, Asia, Australia, the Americas and the Pacific region.

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T H I SW E E K ' SS T O R I E S

University is welcoming its most diverse freshman class in history

Yale will bring educational treasures to iTunesU

Appointments Announced

• Yale College deans for student and Native American affairs
  
  
• Deputy provosts for science, faculty development
  
  
• Coordinator of community programs in science
  
  

Yale Arab Alumni Association launched this summer

Yalies get taste of Hollywood as ‘Indiana Jones’ extras

SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT NEWS

• Five new faculty members begin teaching this fall
  
  
• Students win championship round of new game show
  
  
• New clinic offers free aid to local businesses, non-profits
  
  
• Jeffrey Sonnenfeld cited as a business school ‘All Star’
  
  

DeVane Lectures to explore impact of performing arts

Scientists discover that evolution is driven by gene regulation

Exhibit explores fusion of fact and fiction in pirate portrayals

Also on view at the Beinecke Library

Exhibit features landscapes by photographer Jem Southam

Volunteers will again help during ‘Days of Caring’

Show celebrates East Asia collection’s 100th anniversary

Appointments at Center for Bioethics include a new director, David Smith

New residential college deans named

Events explore topics of reconciliation and ‘laws common to all mankind’

Yale Art Museums’ Open House to feature music, tours and more

Yale Library unveils blog and search tool

OISS seeking hosts for its Community Friends program

IN MEMORIAM

• Letty Russell: Feminist theologian, leader in ecumenical movement
  
  
• Brevard S. Childs: Influential Old Testament scholar, beloved teacher
  
  
• Memorial service to be held for astronomy researcher Dorrit Hoffleit
  
  

Campus Notes

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