CEES Mission
The overarching mission of CEES is to bring ethical and societal challenges of engineering to the attention of the engineering profession and to promote discussion and understanding of these issues in the engineering community. As globalization leads to increasing interaction among regions and peoples of the world, ethical questions raised by technological development and innovation also become more complex. As key players in the design, testing, implementation and evaluation of these technologies engineers and engineering professions and organizations must be involved, and can, in fact, lead the discussion of these crucial issues.

The Center will sponsor activities that encourage multi-disciplinary examination of these ethical and societal issues by engineers, academics, and representatives of public and private organizations and government. It will draw on the expertise of NAE members to develop priorities and programs in the following areas:

• identification and examination of issues in engineering, ethics, and society,
• promotion of research, teaching, and practice of engineering ethics,
• development of unique resources in engineering, ethics, and society for individual engineers and engineering organizations.

Online Ethics Center
One unique resource in the Center for Engineering, Ethics, and Society is the Online Ethics Center. It provides readily accessible literature and information, case studies and references, and discussion groups on ethics in engineering and science, focused on problems that arise in the work lives of engineers and scientists. This newly reformatted site, made possible by the Bovay gift along with the leadership of Dr. Wm. A. Wulf, former NAE president, and Dr. Caroline Whitbeck, founder of the original online center and professor emerita, Case Western Reserve University, serves practitioners, educators, students, and individuals interested in professional and research ethics. OEC contents provide engineers and engineering students with resources for understanding and addressing ethically significant problems that arise in their work. The online center is also a valuable resource for promoting learning and advancing the understanding of responsible research and practice in engineering and science.

Advisory Group
The NAE has appointed a CEES advisory group, chaired by Dr. John Ahearne, an NAE member and former director of the Sigma Xi’s ethics program. The group includes Dr. Wm. A. Wulf, former president of NAE, who was a major force in the development of the OEC; Juan Lucena, associate professor, Liberal Arts and International Studies, Colorado School of Mines; Debra Stewart, president, Council of Graduate Schools; Priscilla Nelson, provost at the New Jersey Institute of Technology; Paul Citron, retired vice president of Medtronic, Inc.; Clark Miller, professor at Arizona State University; and Caroline Whitbeck, the founder of the Online Ethics Center (OEC). Dr. Whitbeck continues to direct the OEC and chairs the OEC Advisory Group.

CEES Staff Contacts