Introduction to Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) at Academic Institutions

Philip DeShong, Professor emeritus in the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry and in the Division of Research, University of Maryland, College Park presented a free webinar (via Zoom) on the training programs he helped to create at UMD.  He a long-time member of the ACS Committee on Ethics.

View the recording HERE.

Responsible Conduct of Research Education at Academic Institutions

Over the past two decades, the teaching of Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR, previously called Professional Ethics) has become a regular curriculum item for both undergraduates, graduate students, and dedicated research professionals, including faculty, at academic institutions. These educational programs have been mandated in part by increased regulatory requirements from federal funding agencies, but also by larger professional and societal demands on the university.  In this seminar, he will discuss the evolution of RCR education at academic institutions and how the University of Maryland has implemented an integrated approach to RCR education beginning at the undergraduate level and continuing into the highest levels of the university’s research program.

All U.S. research-funding agencies take RCR training very seriously — see, for example, the requirements on the NIH web site.

Download the presentation slides HERE.

Click HERE to download the event flier. Professor DeShong obtained his B.S. Chemistry with Honors and Special Honors in Chemistry at the University of Texas at Austin and his Sc.D. in Organic Chemistry (with Professor George H. Büchi) in 1971.  After post-doctoral work at MIT and and the ETH Zurich, he joined the University of Pennslyvania as Assistant Professor in 1979.  He was appointed Associate Professor at the University of Maryland in 1986 and was promoted to Professor in 1990, retiring as Emeritus Professor in 2022.

His research interests include synthesis of nanomaterials with novel optical properties; synthesis and characterization of functionalized nanomaterials for applications in drug delivery, diagnostics and vaccine development; total synthesis of heterocyclic natural products, development of methodology for organic synthesis, mechanistic organometallic chemistry, synthesis of  complex oligosaccharides and glycoprotein derivatives, chemistry of hypervalent silicon derivatives.