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Public events to examine scientific fraud, immigration

The high-profile "Baltimore case" on alleged scientific misconduct is the subject of a Science, Technology, and Society (STS) colloquium on Monday, Oct. 28 at 4pm in the Tang Center's Wong Auditorium (Rm E51-115). The event is co-sponsored by the history of science department at Harvard University.

"Government, the Media, and Scientific Misconduct: The David Baltimore Case in American Political Culture" will be led by speaker Dan Kevles, professor of humanities and director of the Program in Science, Ethics and Public Policy at the California Institute of Technology. Respondents will be David Baltimore, Ivan R. Cottrell Professor of Molecular Biology and Immunology and Institute Professor; Victor McElheny, director of the Knight Science Journalism Fellowship program, and Malcolm Gladwell, staff writer at The New Yorker, who covered the case primarily while at the Washington Post.

The lengthy case ended this summer when a federal appeals panel dismissed allegations of scientific misconduct against former MIT researcher Dr. Theresa Imanishi-Kari, who worked in Professor Baltimore's lab. It offers a view of "public, press and government interest in how science is conducted. and the degree to which the press does its job poorly or well, with naive or with real understanding of how science operates," said Michael Fischer, director of STS and professor of anthropology and science and technology studies.

For more information, call x3-3452 or e-mail .

REFUGEES DISCUSSION

"Refugees, Immigrants, and Urban Pressures: Whose Responsibilities, Whose Rights?" is the topic of a noon panel discussion on Thursday, Oct. 31 in Wong Auditorium that is free and open to the public.

Senior MIT faculty and United Nations officials will discuss the impact of migration on sustainable cities in terms of human rights and national and local responsibility. Questions to be raised include: What are the economic rights of refugees when new states are formed and when people cross national boundaries? What administrative and legal changes will be needed to manage urban growth? How is disease controlled? What about conservation, child labor and women who are left behind?

Associate Professor Bishwapriya Sanyal, head of the Department of Urban Studies and Planning and an advisor to the World Bank, the UN and the International Labor Organization, will moderate the panel that will include Professor Myron Weiner of political science, former director of the Center for International Studies and author of The Global Migration Crisis: Challenge to State and Human Rights, and Janice Perlman, a US delegate at the 1996 UN Habitat II Conference. Wally N'Dow, secretary general of Habitat II and director of the UN Center for Human Settlements in Kenya, will open the session.

The event is part of the Catherine N. Stratton Series, established in 1994 to honor Kay Stratton, wife of the late MIT President Julius A. Stratton. The lectures are sponsored by the MIT Women's League. For more information about the League, visit Rm 10-342 or call x3-3656.

A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on October 23, 1996.

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