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MSL Student Corinna Raimondo Awarded Mirzayan Fellowship

January 29, 2016

Master of Science in Law (MSL) student Corinna Raimondo was selected to be a 2016 Christine Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy Graduate Fellow with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. She begins the 12-week program this month, where she will work on international research ethics projects with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE).

Raimondo, who has a PhD in physical chemistry and is a postdoctoral fellow with Northwestern University’s McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, became very interested in ethics of scientific research during her academic career.

“During my studies, I noticed how misconduct in the sciences is a huge issue. Most money for research is public money and we want to be accountable,” she said.

As part of her fellowship, Raimondo will work with the Center for Engineering Ethics and Society, an organization within NAE that provides resources for students and scholars. She will also work on a project to develop a set of international standards on research ethics.

She was interested in the MSL program the moment she heard about it, and valued the opportunity to gain an understanding of how the law is applied to science.

“There’s no body on international laws regulating scientific research. Editors and journals have their own policies, and there’s no guarantee they’re being applied,” Raimondo said, “Lack of regulation is one of the reasons there have been very significant misconduct cases, like Andrew Wakefield’s study on the link between autism and vaccines.”

Raimondo, who will return to Northwestern after the fellowship, says the MSL program has been “a great starting point for me.” She also believes it helped her fellowship application stand out.

“Getting to do work like this is a dream; it’s exactly what I want to do with my life.”