Monday 10 September 2012

Do Doug's bosses Approve of What He's Doing?

Now that you've seen Doug's lack of qualifications to comment on anything in science bioethics, how has RIKEN treated his absolute absence of any formal science training? They have promoted him! Doug's page at RIKEN lists that he is a "Unit Leader". Leader of what? The "Science Policy and Ethics Studies Unit", which includes one member, Doug Sipp. How did Sipp, a man with about as much science education as an out of work thespian with a four year degree driving a black hack in London end up the leader of a one man stem cell bioethics unit?

Prior to this change in title and the creation of the one man unit on bioethics, Doug was a manager in the Office for Research Communications in the Stem Cell Section at Riken. He was basically a marketing guy who went from selling magazines at Nature to selling RIKEN. So with no training, education, or academic achievement of any kind other than publishing a few opinion pieces and writing a hate speech blog, Doug was "promoted" to be the leader of a one man science bioethics unit. What could have been the reason for basically handing Doug a career in bioethics for which he had no training? Well, he was good at protecting the financial interests of the RIKEN stem cell unit! In addition, what major news organisation would listen to a marketing manager? They will listen to someone impersonating a scientist with bioethics training. In addition, many of these reporters likely believe Doug is the American ex-pat, Ph.D. "leader" of some massive "unit" at some little known research centre in far away Japan and not the uneducated one man show shilling for RIKEN and attacking competitive technologies. 

So do his bosses know what Doug does? You be the judge.

Science Policy and Ethics Studies Unit
Douglass SIPP
Unit Leader
Douglas SIPP
mail
Research Areas
The field of stem cell research has received a great deal of attention due to the combination of fundamental scientific interest, therapeutic promise, and commercial potential it entails. But it has also been surrounded by legal, social, and ethical tensions across a broad range of issues, from the research use of human embryos to the optimization of pathways for the translation of basic research into clinical applications. We will seek to compare different science policy approaches to these issues and identify regulatory frameworks best suited to the development and promulgation of stem cell applications. We will further explore social and ethical perspectives on the translation of human stem cell research, with an emphasis on the Asia-Pacific region.
Research Subject
  1. Stem cells and regenerative medicine in the Asia-Pacific region.
  2. Global issues in unregulated stem cell treatments
  3. Regulatory issues in developmet of stem cell clinical applications

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