2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Expanding the Paramountcy Clause: A Proposal to Mandate “Public and Planet” for the Engineering Profession

Presented at Engineering Ethics Division (ETHICS) Technical Session 2

The ethical foundation of engineering – to “hold paramount the health, safety, and welfare of the public” – faces a critical stress test in the Anthropocene, an informal nomenclature describing the period since 1950 when human activity disrupts the historical pattern of planetary processes. A significant gap exists in current professional codes and pedagogy: environmental protection remains largely aspirational and siloed from mandatory public welfare obligations. This reality contributes to a “culture of disengagement” among the social and ecological dimensions of the professional practice of engineering. This theoretical paper elaborates on a recent proposal to formally revise the paramountcy clause as, “Engineers hold paramount the health, safety, and welfare of the public and the planet”. To operationalize the change that has been proposed in the literature, we leverage the Nurse+Engineer model as a conceptual scaffold to synthesize the Ethics of Justice (from engineering) with the Ethics of Care (from nursing) as an example of V-shaped professionalism, where two parallel professions work towards a shared future. Our approach is intended to address the documented need for a socio-technical orientation by teaching concepts such as “Ethical Triage” (e.g., from healthcare) and “STEMpathy” (e.g., from economic development). We propose specific Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs) to bridge the gap between technical acumen and planetary stewardship.

Authors

Dr. Daniel B Oerther P.E. http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6724-3205 Missouri University of Science and Technology [biography]

Professor Daniel B. Oerther, PhD, PE joined the faculty of the Missouri University of Science and Technology in 2010 as the John A. and Susan Mathes Chair of Civil Engineering after serving for ten years on the faculty of the University of Cincinnati where he was head of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Professor Oerther is internationally recognized for leadership of engineers, sanitarians, and nurses promoting the practice the sustainable development, local to global. Dan is a Past President of the American Academy of Environmental Engineers and Scientists. He is a Diplomate Laureate of the American Academy of Sanitarians. Dan is a Fellow of the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors, the American Academy of Nursing, the National League for Nursing, and the National Academies of Practice. In the United Kingdom, he is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, the Royal Society for Public Health, and the Society of Operations Engineers. Professor Oerther's awards as an educator include the Excellence in Environmental Engineering Education Award from the American Academy of Environmental Engineers and Scientists, the Gordon Maskew Fair Distinguished Engineering Educator Medal from the Water Environment Federation, the Engineering Education Excellence Award from the National Society of Professional Engineers, the Robert G. Quinn Award from the American Society for Engineering Education, and the Duncan Fraser Global Award for Excellence in Engineering Education from the International Federation of Engineering Education Societies.

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