KEYNOTE: Engineering Ethics – Let’s be open about it

About this presentation

Chemical Engineers and all those working in the Chemical and Process industries face ethical challenges – big strategic ethical challenges such as national energy and sustainable infrastructure  choices but also every day ethical challenges in small technical decisions and in the way that we interact with other people.  Both often require considering the views of a wide range of potential stakeholders in making what can be difficult decisions and trade-offs.  The evidence is that engineers are broadly trusted but perhaps because of a lack of awareness of what we do rather than as a particular approval rating.  An action plan developed by the Engineering Ethics Reference Group is being taken forward to review and strengthen frameworks, educational provision, and public awareness.  To maintain trust it is best to be open about the challenges and trade-offs explaining when there is no simple answer.  The media do tend to like simple answers.  We need to get out there and talk about the complexities.

Speaker Bio:

Professor David Bogle

• President, Institution of Chemical Engineers
• Chair RAEng/EngC Engineering Ethics Reference Group
• Professor of Chemical Engineering University College London

Professor David Bogle is Pro-Vice-Provost of the University College London (UCL) Doctoral School and Early Career Research Staff and Professor of Chemical Engineering at University College London (UCL). His research interests are in Process Systems Engineering and Systems Biology. He is currently the President of the Institution of Chemical Engineers and was the Scientific Vice President of the European Federation of Chemical Engineers from 2018-21. Professor Bogle was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2005. He chairs the Engineering Ethics Reference Group, jointly sponsored by the Royal Academy of Engineering and Engineering Council, which recently published its report ‘Engineering Ethics: Maintaining Society’s Trust in the Engineering Profession’.

As Pro-Vice-Provost he leads the strategy for early career researcher development (doctoral and postdoctoral) at UCL across all disciplines. UCL has over 8,000 research students and 3500 postdoctoral researchers. Professor Bogle is also Chair of the League of European Research Universities (LERU) Doctoral Studies Policy Group and has advised Ministries, funding agencies and Universities across Europe about doctoral education.