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A Question of Balance: Private Rights and the Public Interest in Scientific and Technical Databases (1999)

Chapter: Appendix A: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 1999. A Question of Balance: Private Rights and the Public Interest in Scientific and Technical Databases. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9692.
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Appendixes

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 1999. A Question of Balance: Private Rights and the Public Interest in Scientific and Technical Databases. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9692.
×
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 1999. A Question of Balance: Private Rights and the Public Interest in Scientific and Technical Databases. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9692.
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APPENDIX A
Biographical Sketches of Committee Members

STUDY COMMITTEE

ROBERT J. SERAFIN (chair) is the director of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). Dr. Serafin began his career at Hazeltine Research Corporation where he worked on the design and development of high-resolution radar systems. This was followed by 10 years at the IIT Research Institute and Illinois Institute of Technology. He then joined NCAR as manager of the Field Observing Facility in 1973 and in 1980 became director of the Atmospheric Technology Division, which is responsible for all of NCAR's observational research and research support facilities, used by scientists in universities and laboratories throughout the world. In 1989 he was appointed as NCAR's director. The holder of three patents, Dr. Serafin has published approximately 50 technical and scientific papers and established the Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, and was its co-editor for several years. He has served on several National Research Council (NRC) panels and committees, and he chaired the NRC committee on National Weather Service Modernization. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a fellow of the American Meteorological Society, and a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Dr. Serafin received his BS, MS, and PhD degrees in electrical engineering from Notre Dame University, Northwestern University, and Illinois Institute of Technology, respectively.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 1999. A Question of Balance: Private Rights and the Public Interest in Scientific and Technical Databases. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9692.
×

I. TROTTER HARDY is professor of law at the College of William & Mary School of Law, where he specializes in intellectual property law, law and computers, and tort law. He recently wrote a major report, ''Sketching the Future of Copyright in a Networked World," for the Copyright Office and has published extensively on issues relating to intellectual property law in the digital environment. Mr. Hardy holds a BA from the University of Virginia, an MS from American University, and a JD from Duke University, Order of the Coif.

MAUREEN C. KELLY is vice president for planning at BIOSIS, the largest abstracting and indexing service for the life sciences community. She has worked in different capacities for BIOSIS since 1969. Previously she had production responsibility for the bibliographic and scientific content of BIOSIS products. While in that position, she led the team that developed the system for capturing and managing indexing data in support of BIOSIS's new relational indexing. Ms. Kelly has authored a number of papers on managing and accessing biological information. She is currently secretary of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Section on Information, Computing, and Communication. She has served on various professional society research and publishing committees, including participating in the National Academy of Sciences E-Journal Summit meetings over the past two years. Ms. Kelly has a BA degree from Rutgers University.

PETER R. LEAVITT is a consultant and former chairman and chief executive officer of Weather Services Corp., where he has developed online real-time meteorological databases for national and international agricultural and commodity services. He has a BS in meteorology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Mr. Leavitt served previously on two NRC committees, as well as on several government advisory committees regarding data use and research issues in meteorology.

LEE E. LIMBIRD is associate vice chancellor for research at Vanderbilt University and chair of the Department of Pharmacology. Her responsibilities as associate vice chancellor include development of new intra- and interinstitutional initiatives for research, with a focus on research development in genetics and genomics; neuroscience; and structural biology, broadly defined to include biophysics and bioengineering. The Office of Grants Management and Technology Transfer also represents areas of her responsibility. Dr. Limbird received a BA in chemistry from the College of Wooster and a PhD in biochemistry from the University of North Carolina. Her area of research has been in the molecular pathways of signal transduction by G Protein-coupled receptors using biochemical, cellular, and genetic strategies, including genetically modified mice.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 1999. A Question of Balance: Private Rights and the Public Interest in Scientific and Technical Databases. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9692.
×

PHILIP LOFTUS is vice president and director of Worldwide Information Services Architecture and Technology for Glaxo Wellcome where he is responsible for both the information services infrastructure and global information management. From 1996 to 1998, he served as vice president and director of Worldwide R&D Information Systems and was responsible for developing and implementing a global information system strategy for R&D. Prior to that, he was executive director for Research Information Systems at Merck Research Laboratories, and from 1976 to 1993 he was a vice president for R&D Information Systems and a computational scientist at ICI. Dr. Loftus has a BSc in chemistry and a PhD in conformational isomerism from the University of Liverpool, and he was a Fullbright Hayes Postdoctoral Fellow at the California Institute of Technology in 1974-1975. He holds a postgraduate certificate in education from the University of Liverpool. He has published extensively in the area of information technology applications for pharmaceutical research.

HARLAN J. ONSRUD is professor in the Department of Spatial Information Science and Engineering at the University of Maine and a research scientist with the National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis (NCGIA). He received BS and MS degrees in civil engineering from the University of Wisconsin and a JD from the University of Wisconsin Law School. His research focuses on (1) analysis of legal and institutional issues affecting the creation and use of digital databases and the sharing of geographic information, (2) assessing utilization of GIS and the social impacts of the technology, and (3) developing and assessing strategies for supporting the diffusion of geographic information innovations. Mr. Onsrud has co-led major multiyear NCGIA research initiatives on the use and value of geographic information, institutions sharing geographic information, and law, information policy, and spatial databases. Mr. Onsrud is a licensed engineer, lawyer, and land surveyor.

HARVEY S. PERLMAN is a professor of law and former dean of the University of Nebraska College of Law. He is an expert in trademark law and unfair competition law. In addition to writing many articles in these areas, Mr. Perlman has co-authored Legal Regulation of the Competitive Process: Cases, Materials and Notes on Unfair Business Practices, which is now in its sixth edition under the title Intellectual Property and Unfair Competition (1998). He also was the co-reporter for the American Law Institute's Restatement (Third) of Unfair Competition and is a member of the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, which has been considering changes to the Uniform Commercial Code Article 2(B) regarding private contracts for intellectual property. Mr. Perlman received his BA and JD from the University of Nebraska in 1963 and 1966, respectively.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 1999. A Question of Balance: Private Rights and the Public Interest in Scientific and Technical Databases. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9692.
×

ROBERTA P. SAXON is a patent agent at Skjerven, Morrill, MacPherson, Franklin & Friel, LLP, a law firm specializing in intellectual property in San Jose, California. Prior to that, she was director of the chemistry laboratory at SRI International, where she supervised research in advanced materials, atmospheric chemistry, computational chemistry, and atomic, molecular, and optical physics and performed research in those areas for more than 20 years. Dr. Saxon has a BA in chemistry from Cornell University and an MS and a PhD in chemical physics from the University of Chicago. She is vice chair of the Panel on Public Affairs for the American Physical Society, and she previously served on an NRC study for a research strategy for atomic, molecular, and optical sciences.

SUZANNE SCOTCHMER is a professor of economics and public policy at the University of California, Berkeley. Her broad fields of research are in economic theory and industrial organization, with current emphasis on intellectual property, particularly as it relates to cumulative innovations, digital content, and decentralized mechanisms by which firms share information. Dr. Scotchmer received her PhD in economics from the University of California, Berkeley in 1980 and her MA in statistics in 1979.

MARK STEFIK is a principal scientist at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, where he focuses on trusted system approaches for creating, protecting, and reusing digital property in the network context. His current and past research activities include research on reasoning with constraints, and paradigms of programming, as well as applications of artificial intelligence and computer science to problems in molecular genetics, VLSI circuit design, configuration of computer systems, and systems for supporting collaborative processes in work groups. Dr. Stefik's book, Internet Dreams: Archetypes, Myths, and Metaphors , was published by MIT Press in 1996. Dr. Stefik received his BS and PhD from Stanford University.

MARTHA E. WILLIAMS is director of the Information Retrieval Research Lab and a professor of Information Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her research interests include digital database management, online retrieval systems, systems analysis and design, chemical information systems, and electronic publishing. She has published widely on these topics and has been editor of the Annual Review of Information Sciences and Technology (since 1975), Computer Readable Databases: A Directory & Data Sourcebook (1976-1987), and Online Review (since 1977). Professor Williams was chair of the Board of Engineering Information, Inc., from 1980 to 1988, was appointed to the National Library of Medicine's Board of Regents from 1978 to 1981 and served as chair of the board in 1981. In addition, she served on several NRC committees, including the Numerical Data Advisory Board (1979-1982). She has an AB from Barat College and an MA from Loyola University.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 1999. A Question of Balance: Private Rights and the Public Interest in Scientific and Technical Databases. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9692.
×

STUDY COMMITTEE

PAUL F. UHLIR is director of international scientific and technical information programs at the U.S. National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council (National Academies) in Washington, D.C., where he directs science and technology policy studies for the federal government. His current area of emphasis is issues at the interface of science, technology, and law, with primary focus on scientific data and information policy, and on the relationship of intellectual property law to R&D policy. Mr. Uhlir is also director of the U.S. National Committee for CODATA. From 1991 to 1998, he was associate executive director of the Commission on Physical Sciences, Mathematics, and Applications, and from 1985 to 1991 he was senior program officer at the Space Studies Board, where he worked on solar system exploration and Earth remote sensing studies for NASA. Before joining the National Academies, he was a foreign affairs officer at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the Department of Commerce, where he worked on meteorological and land remote sensing law and policy issues. He is the author or editor of more than 50 books, reports, and articles. Mr. Uhlir has a BA in history from the University of Oregon, and a JD and an MA in international relations from the University of San Diego.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 1999. A Question of Balance: Private Rights and the Public Interest in Scientific and Technical Databases. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9692.
×
Page 111
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 1999. A Question of Balance: Private Rights and the Public Interest in Scientific and Technical Databases. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9692.
×
Page 112
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 1999. A Question of Balance: Private Rights and the Public Interest in Scientific and Technical Databases. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9692.
×
Page 113
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 1999. A Question of Balance: Private Rights and the Public Interest in Scientific and Technical Databases. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9692.
×
Page 114
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 1999. A Question of Balance: Private Rights and the Public Interest in Scientific and Technical Databases. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9692.
×
Page 115
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 1999. A Question of Balance: Private Rights and the Public Interest in Scientific and Technical Databases. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9692.
×
Page 116
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 1999. A Question of Balance: Private Rights and the Public Interest in Scientific and Technical Databases. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9692.
×
Page 117
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New legal approaches, such as the European Union's 1996 Directive on the Legal Protection of Databases, and other legal initiatives now being considered in the United States at the federal and state level, are threatening to compromise public access to scientific and technical data available through computerized databases. Lawmakers are struggling to strike an appropriate balance between the rights of database rights holders, who are concerned about possible commercial misappropriation of their products, and public-interest users of the data such as researchers, educators, and libraries.

A Question of Balance examines this balancing act. The committee concludes that because database rights holders already enjoy significant legal, technical, and market-based protections, the need for statutory protection has not been sufficiently substantiated. Nevertheless, although the committee opposes the creation of any strong new protective measures, it recognizes that some additional limits against wholesale misappropriation of databases may be necessary. In particular, a new, properly scoped and focused U.S. statute might provide a reasonable alternative to the European Union's highly protectionistic database directive. Such legislation could then serve as a legal model for an international treaty in this area. The book recommends a number of guiding principles for such possible legislation, as well as related policy actions for the administration.

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