Instructor - Investigator
Dr. Semendeferi is an Assistant Research/Teaching Professor in the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics at the University of Houston (UH). Dr. Semendeferi has a B.S. degree in Physics (magna cum laude) from the Aristotle University in Greece. She got her Ph.D. in History of Science, Technology, and Medicine at the University of Minnesota.
Dr. Semendeferi pursued ambitious archival research during her Ph.D. years with support from several foundations, including an NSF grant from the Science and Technology Studies Program. She worked for a time as a researcher at the Argonne National Laboratory investigating historical issues in environmental science. Her articles have mainly appeared in the Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences journal and in the History of Science Society Conference series.
Dr. Semendeferi was the architect of the ethics in science and the history of science courses at UH, where she has been teaching them since 2008. She developed the concept of “Experiencing Ethics” upon which the relevant NSF grant is based.
Collaborating Investigators
Dr. Pavlidis is the Eckhard-Pfeiffer Professor of Computer Science at UH. He is actively involved in ethics initiatives in the area of scientific publishing; a notable one was the introduction of the open review system, during his 2008 Program Chairmanship of the IEEE AVSS Conference. Dr. Pavlidis runs a major interdisciplinary lab and has a multi-disciplinary background that touches upon biomedicine, psychology, computing, and engineering. He has been the Principal Investigator (PI) in many research grants from NSF, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Department of Defense (DOD), and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Dr. Pavlidis is also on the executive committees of several refereed conferences.
Dr. Phillips is Associate Professor in the Philosophy Department at UH. He served as Interim Chair of the Philosophy Department in the spring of 2010, and as Chair of the Faculty Governance and Advisory Committee in the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences from 2003-2007. He is a current member of the Faculty Senate, serving on the budget committee. He specializes in ethics, especially metaethics and the history of ethics. His book, Sidgwickian Ethics was published by Oxford University Press in October of 2011. His articles have appeared in top journals including The Journal of Philosophy and Philosophy and Phenomenological Research.
