January 22, 2001

Noted Bioethicist Will Help Lead Indiana Genomics Initiative

INDIANAPOLIS -- Eric M. Meslin, Ph.D., has been selected to guide the Indiana University bioethics program, filling an important role in the university's development of the recently announced Indiana Genomics Initiative.

Dr. Meslin will be director of the Indiana University Center for Bioethics, assistant dean for bioethics and professor in the Department of Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine, pending approval by the IU trustees.

Currently, he is the executive director of the National Bioethics Advisory Commission, a position he was appointed to in February 1998. The National Bioethics Advisory Commission was established by executive order signed by President Clinton in 1995.

The Indiana Genomics Initiative was made possible with a $105 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc., and will create a world-class biomedical research initiative, building on existing resources at Indiana University.

With a career focused on bioethics, Dr. Meslin served from 1996 to 1998 as program director for bioethics research with the Ethical, Legal and Social Implications Research Program at the National Human Genome Research Institute in Bethesda, Md. In 1994 and 1995, he was a visiting fellow at Green College, University of Oxford, and the visiting clinical ethicist at the Oxford Radcliffe Hospital, where he established the United Kingdom's first clinical ethics program.

In addition, he was assistant director (1991- 95), and then deputy director (1995- 96) of the University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics. He has held academic appointments in philosophy, medicine, pharmacy and health administration at the University of Toronto, and has served as a senior research fellow at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University.

He received a bachelor's degree in philosophy from York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and his master's degree and doctorate from the Bioethics Program in Philosophy at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics, Georgetown University.

While completing his graduate studies, he was a program analyst at the Office for Protection from Research Risks at the National Institutes of Health. After completing his master's degree, he was the research ethics officer at the American Psychological Association.

He also has served as a consultant to the Medical Research council of Canada, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, World Health Organization and the U.S. Observer Mission to UNESCO.

Dr. Meslin has authored or co-authored more than 75 articles and book chapters on various aspects of research ethics, clinical ethics and health policy.

Media Contact: Mary Hardin
Tel: (317)274-7722
Email: mhardin@iupui.edu

 

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