Karl G. Brandt

After spending eighteen years in academic administration as associate dean and director of academic programs for Purdue’s School of Agriculture , I returned to the Department of Biochemistry full time as a faculty member in July 2002. Prior to moving into administration, I had an active research program and published in the area of the kinetics and mechanism of enzyme-catalyzed reactions. I employed both steady-state and stopped-flow kinetic methods, with a principal focus on flavin-mediated oxidation-reduction reactions. I also taught graduate-level courses in both areas. I retain an interest in these general areas and am interested in working in a consultative/advisory capacity with graduate students whose thesis projects involve any element of enzymology and/or kinetics.

My interest in bioethics has evolved from an avocational interest in philosophy and public policy dating back to my undergraduate days. I spent the spring 2003 semester on sabbatical leave at Duke University studying bioethics under Allen Buchanan, professor of philosophy and public policy, in the Sanford Institute of Public Policy, and in affiliation with Duke’s Center for Genome Ethics, Law and Policy headed by Robert Cook-Deegan.

I am particularly interested in two broad areas.

1) Does the developed world have a moral/ethical responsibility to address problems of the underdeveloped world that a) admit of a scientific solution and b) are potentially solvable if the developed world were to commit sufficient resources and make their solution a priority? If so, how can those arguments be crafted into effective public policy? Currently, I am focusing my study and writing in the area of parasitic diseases such as malaria.

2) The issue of therapeutic cloning (cloning-for-medical-research) has generated much debate. I am interested in this debate, particularly as such cloning is seen by many as offering potential treatments for a number of challenging, debilitating diseases. Among my interests is the exploration of whether it is possible to develop arguments that defend the use of therapeutic cloning as a viable approach to the solution of such problems, and how our views on the moral status of the human embryo, human dignity and beneficence affect our views on the ethics/morality of therapeutic cloning.

For the next few years, my energies will be focused heavily on undergraduate teaching. For many years, enhanced by my experiences as an administrator of academic programs, I have had an abiding interest in the areas of curriculum and of teaching excellence. They still occupy my thinking. Are we educating our students – undergraduate, graduate, post-graduate – well? What constitutes a good curriculum? How do you decide if a curriculum is good? What is the difference between “education” and “training”? How does one become an excellent teacher? What is teaching excellence? Can it be learned/taught, or is it innate? Can we enhance our teaching skills? How can we promote the practice of talking with our colleagues about our teaching with the same enthusiasm that we approach talking with our colleagues about our research?