We were introduced to Fellowships at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics, FASPE through three Institute alumni who took part in their Fellowships - Benjamin Perlstein, Tomo Takaki, and Duncan Pickard. FASPE’s Executive Director Thorsten Wagner, regards them as some of the finest of their Fellows and we have begun an enthusiastic conversation, and a commitment to collaboration.

Our initial joint effort was the convening of a Convisero webinar with Thorsten, Ben, Tomo, and Duncan, on the FASPE experience, the ethical decisions and challenges they have faced in their own lives, and their perspectives on the importance of ethical professionalism in the world of today.

We formally cosponsored a conversation with Timothy Snyder, Levin Professor of History at Yale University specializing in the history of Central and Eastern Europe and the Holocaust, and author of eight groundbreaking books including On Tyranny. With Thorsten, discussed his latest book, Our Malady: Lessons in Liberty from a Hospital Diary, an impassioned condemnation of commercial medicine, America’s coronavirus response, and an urgent call to rethink the connection between health and freedom.

I serve FASPE in an advisory and consultative role, especially regarding FASPE’s plan to create new Fellowship tracks on the ethics of science, technology, and engineering. They are particularly interested first in a track on Artificial Intelligence and system design architecture.

I will integrate this role with The Trebuchet’s Pugwash-related initiative and network dedicated to strengthening the student Pugwash movement and stimulating ethical thinking in universities on science and technology. To this end, and to assist FASPE in conceptualizing their new initiatives, we invited Yale PhD physics student Talia Weiss to join the conversation. She had written this germane essay, “Scientific Blinders: Learning from the Moral Failings of Nazi Physicists,” for the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists.