Open Access: “Come the Revolution”

First published on April 30, 2016 I spent most of last week in the company of revolutionary librarians. The event was the first conference of Open Scholarship Initiative, a working group in the vanguard in the movement for unrestricted, cost-free access to academic research and the demise or transformation of traditional academic publishing. The implications…

Campus Sustainability Programs

First published on June 6, 2016 [Note: I’m posting this blog in honor of the annual meeting of the Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, which is about to start here in Washington DC.] Campus sustainability programs are not just successful applications of sustainability models on a small scale. They can also serve as important…

Reflections on COP21

First published on Friday, 01 January 2016 With the benefit of a few weeks to think about it, I have some thoughts to share on COP21. Some may seem a little contrarian. They are not in any particular order. Consider them musings, not well-defined arguments. The COP21 agreement in Paris got the world over the…

Doing Good in “Minute Particulars” in Occupational Medicine

First published on Monday, 09 November 2015 Occupational medicine is and should be about helping and protecting people. It is about preventing avoidable injury and illness, helping people live healthier lives, and ensuring fair compensation when we cannot stop bad things from happening. Unfortunately, this is not so easy for us compared to other physicians.…

Transformative Leaders in Occupational Medicine

First published on Monday, 02 November 2015 There are truly transformative leaders in occupational and environmental medicine and their leadership is of a certain type. One of the distinguishing characteristics of our most effective leaders is that they have toiled in the fields and worked behind the scenes and not on stage. They are quiet…

False Prophets in Occupational Medicine

Originally published on Monday, 26 October 2015 Leadership in our field requires finesse, patience, and deep insight. That makes many people uncomfortable, because they want a fighter, who can dash in guns blazing and set things straight. But the field we work in a very complicated, highly structured setting, full of regulations, management systems, compensation…