Continuing public interest in ethics and the increasing importance of providing students an ethical education prompted Joan and David Lincoln of Paradise Valley to give Arizona State University a gift of to initiate a university-wide applied ethics program developed and coordinated in the Joan and David Lincoln Center for Applied Ethics.

Ethics education, research and community outreach are integral parts of the Center's programs. The Center, housed in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, works directly with a number of the schools and colleges within the University to create ethics studies, conferences, conduct research and produce related programming.

The Center's goal is to create a university and community ethical culture. It will do so by sponsoring an array of activities ranging from course development to conferences on ethics issues that occur in specific fields and professions as well as those of pressing importance in the community at large.

The Joan and David Lincoln Center for Applied Ethics at ASU is a unique resource that supports ethics and encourages the practice of ethical behavior. The Center is dedicated to emphasizing the essential role that morals and values play in the achievements and successes of individuals and organizations.

Dr. Peter A. French joined the ASU faculty as the Lincoln Chair in Ethics in the Department of Philosophy and as Director of the Lincoln Center for Applied Ethics October 16, 2000.

Prior to Professor French's appointment at ASU he was the Cole Chair In Ethics, Director of The Ethics Center, and Chair of the Department of Philosophy of the University of South Florida. Before that he was the Lennox Distinguished Professor of the Humanities and Professor of Philosophy at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. He has taught at Northern Arizona University; the University of Minnesota; Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia; and served as Exxon Distinguished Research Professor in the Center for the Study of Values at the University of Delaware. He has a BA from Gettysburg College, an MA from the University of Southern California, a Ph.D. from the University of Miami.

Dr. French has a national reputation in ethical and legal theory and in collective and corporate responsibility and criminal liability. He is the author of nineteen books including The Virtue of Vengeance, Cowboy Metaphysics: Ethics and Death in Westerns, Corporate Ethics, Responsibility Matters, Corporations in the Moral Community, The Spectrum of Responsibility, Collective and Corporate Responsibility, Corrigible Corporations and Unruly Laws, Ethics in Government, Ethics and College Sports,and The Scope of Morality.

Dr. French is a senior editor of Midwest Studies in Philosophy, was the editor of the Journal of Social Philosophy, and general editor of the Issues in Contemporary Ethics series. He has published dozens of articles in the major philosophical and legal journals and reviews, many of which have been anthologized.

The Center opened in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences on December 1, 2000.