Herman T. Tavani, Ph.D., is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Rivier University, where he previously served as Chair of the Philosophy Department and Director of the Liberal Studies Program. He has also held appointments as a visiting (adjunct) lecturer at Boston College – Carroll School of Management, and as a visiting scholar/research fellow at Dartmouth College – Humanities Institute (Leslie Center). Currently, he is a visiting scholar at the Harvard School of Public Health – (Harvard NIESH) Center for Environmental Health where his research, supported by a series of Harvard–NIH grants, has centered on privacy-and-consent issues in environmental-health-related studies involving the use of emerging technologies.
Professor Tavani is the author of Ethics and Technology, a textbook which he is currently revising for a fifth edition, and the editor or co-editor of four books on social and ethical aspects of information technology. He has also edited or co-edited twelve special issues of journals/periodicals, six books of (conference) proceedings, and two book-length bibliographies on themes in information/computer ethics and public health ethics. Tavani’s earlier research, including his dissertation (A Kantian Theory of Universals), focused mainly on metaphysical and epistemological questions, especially as they pertain to the classic philosophical problem of universals. His numerous scholarly papers have been published as research articles in (refereed) journals and periodicals; as chapters in books of readings and proceedings; and as entries in encyclopedias and handbooks. He has also presented his scholarly works as (peer-reviewed) conference papers, invited talks, and keynote addresses at institutions in eleven countries in Europe and Asia, as well as at colleges and universities throughout the United States.
An active member of several professional associations, Professor Tavani recently completed a four-year term as President of the International Society for Ethics and Information Technology (INSEIT) – an association for which he previously served as Co-Executive Director. He has served as President of the Northern New England Philosophical Association (NNEPA) and as Secretary/Treasurer of the Association for Computing’s Special Interest Group on Computers and Society (ACM-SIGCAS), an international organization that honored him in 2008 with its Outstanding Service Award. Tavani also served on the Steering Committee for the International Association for Computing and Philosophy (IACAP) and on the APA (American Philosophical Association) – Committee on Philosophy and Computers, to which he was appointed by the APA’s executive board. He has also served on the editorial/advisory/review boards of a wide range of academic journals, and is currently Book Review Editor for the journal Ethics and Information Technology.
Tavani has also worked as a software technical writer and software publications supervisor in the computer industry, where he wrote handbooks, user guides, and reference manuals (on components and features of the VMS Operating System). He currently resides in Nashua, NH with his wife, Joanne; together, they enjoy international travel and visiting their daughter, Regina, in nearby Boston.