Richard M. Sternberg is an American scientist and
intelligent designIntelligent design is the assertion that "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection." It is a modern form of the traditional teleological argument for the existence of God, but one which...
proponent. He was the editor of the scientific journal
Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington who controversially handled the review and editing process of the only article published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal advocating intelligent design. The journal subsequently declared that the paper "does not meet the scientific standards of the Proceedings" and would not have been published had usual editorial practices been followed.
Sternberg completed a BS degree from
University of South CarolinaThe University of South Carolina is a public, co-educational, research university located in Columbia, South Carolina, United States...
and has two PhDs; the first from 1995 in
molecular evolutionMolecular evolution is the process of evolution at the scale of DNA, RNA, and proteins. Molecular evolution emerged as a scientific field in the 1960s as researchers from molecular biology, evolutionary biology and population genetics sought to understand recent discoveries on the structure and...
from
Florida International UniversityFlorida International University, commonly referred to as FIU, is a public research university located in Miami, Florida, in the United States, with its main campus at University Park...
, and a second in
systems scienceSystems science is an interdisciplinary field of science that studies the nature of complex systems in nature, society, and science. It aims to develop interdisciplinary foundations, which are applicable in a variety of areas, such as engineering, biology, medicine and social sciences.Systems...
from
Binghamton UniversityBinghamton University is one of the four university centers in New York State's system of post-secondary public education. Since its establishment in 1946, it has undergone a number of changes in name and location. Today, the research university's main campus is located in Vestal, New York, and the...
.
Richard M. Sternberg is an American scientist and
intelligent designIntelligent design is the assertion that "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection." It is a modern form of the traditional teleological argument for the existence of God, but one which...
proponent. He was the editor of the scientific journal
Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington who controversially handled the review and editing process of the only article published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal advocating intelligent design. The journal subsequently declared that the paper "does not meet the scientific standards of the Proceedings" and would not have been published had usual editorial practices been followed.
Biography
Sternberg completed a BS degree from
University of South CarolinaThe University of South Carolina is a public, co-educational, research university located in Columbia, South Carolina, United States...
and has two PhDs; the first from 1995 in
molecular evolutionMolecular evolution is the process of evolution at the scale of DNA, RNA, and proteins. Molecular evolution emerged as a scientific field in the 1960s as researchers from molecular biology, evolutionary biology and population genetics sought to understand recent discoveries on the structure and...
from
Florida International UniversityFlorida International University, commonly referred to as FIU, is a public research university located in Miami, Florida, in the United States, with its main campus at University Park...
, and a second in
systems scienceSystems science is an interdisciplinary field of science that studies the nature of complex systems in nature, society, and science. It aims to develop interdisciplinary foundations, which are applicable in a variety of areas, such as engineering, biology, medicine and social sciences.Systems...
from
Binghamton UniversityBinghamton University is one of the four university centers in New York State's system of post-secondary public education. Since its establishment in 1946, it has undergone a number of changes in name and location. Today, the research university's main campus is located in Vestal, New York, and the...
. He did post-doctoral work between 1999 and 2001 at the
National Museum of Natural HistoryThe National Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.. Admission is free and the museum is open 364 days a year....
(NMNH) at the
Smithsonian InstitutionThe Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its shops and its magazines...
and in 2004 he was given a 3 year appointment as an unpaid research associate. On 15 November 2006, he received a further three year appointment as an unpaid 'research collaborator' at the NMNH.
Sternberg subscribes to the process structuralism school of thought. He is a Roman Catholic "who attends Mass."
In 2001, he became managing editor of the peer-reviewed
scientific journalIn academic publishing, a scientific journal is a periodical publication intended to further the progress of science, usually by reporting new research. There are thousands of scientific journals in publication, and many more have been published at various points in the past...
,
Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington and joined the board of the
International Journal of General SystemsInternational Journal of General Systems is a crossdisciplinary periodical devoted primarily to the publication of original research contributions to systems science, general systems methodology, applications and education....
. The
Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington is a
taxonomicTaxonomy is the practice and science of classification. The word finds its roots in the Greek , taxis and , nomos...
journal which usually publishes descriptions of newly-identified
speciesIn biology, a species is:* a taxonomic rank or* a unit at that rank ....
. In the same year, he also joined the editorial board of the
Baraminology Study GroupBaraminology is a system used in creation science for classifying life into groups having no common descent, called "baramins". Its methodology is based on a literal creationist interpretation of "kinds" in Genesis, especially a distinction between humans and other animals. Other criteria include...
, a young earth creationist "
creation scienceCreation science or scientific creationism is the movement within creationism which attempts to provide support for the religious account of creation according to Genesis, and disprove accepted scientific facts, theories and scientific paradigms about the history of the Earth, cosmology and...
" attempt to identify and classify the created kinds mentioned in scripture. He has stated that he is an outside critic and remained skeptical of their young earth beliefs. Sternberg serves as a fellow of the
International Society for Complexity, Information and DesignThe International Society for Complexity, Information, and Design was a non-profit professional society that promoted intelligent design.and rejected evolution....
(ISCID), an
intelligent designIntelligent design is the assertion that "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection." It is a modern form of the traditional teleological argument for the existence of God, but one which...
group. In 2002, Sternberg presented a lecture on intelligent design at the ISCID's Research And Progress in Intelligent Design (RAPID) conference. He is also a signatory to the
Discovery InstituteThe Discovery Institute is a conservative non-profit public policy think tank based in Seattle, Washington, best known for its advocacy of intelligent design. Its Teach the Controversy campaign aims to teach creationist anti-evolution beliefs in United States public high school science courses...
's
Scientific Dissent from DarwinismA Scientific Dissent from Darwinism is a petition whose signatories attest to a statement which expresses skepticism about the ability of random mutations and natural selection to account for the complexity of life, and encourages careful examination of the evidence for "Darwinism," a term...
petition.
Peer review controversy
In June 2004, a paper by
Stephen C. MeyerThis page is for the intelligent design advocate and Discovery Institute officer Stephen C. Meyer. For the rugby player see Steve Meyer.Stephen C. Meyer is an American think tank executive officer and co-founder, along with Phillip E. Johnson and others, of the intelligent design movement...
advocating intelligent design was published in the
Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington, a peer reviewed scientific journal edited at the time by Sternberg, fulfilling, in part, a goal of the intelligent design movement since its inception. Meyer serves as the Director of the
Center for Science and CultureThe Center for Science and Culture , formerly known as the Center for the Renewal of Science and Culture , is part of the Discovery Institute, a conservative Christian think tank in the United States...
, part of the
Discovery InstituteThe Discovery Institute is a conservative non-profit public policy think tank based in Seattle, Washington, best known for its advocacy of intelligent design. Its Teach the Controversy campaign aims to teach creationist anti-evolution beliefs in United States public high school science courses...
, the hub of the intelligent design movement. According to an article by the Society of Academic Authors, Meyer said the article grew out of a presentation he made at a conference attended by Sternberg, at which they discussed the possibility of a paper for the society's journal.
The issue of the Proceedings in which the Meyer article appears was to be Sternberg's last before stepping down, having resigned in October 2003. Sternberg's decision to publish Meyer's paper and the method by which it was done prompted widespread controversy, ultimately resulting in the journal's publisher deeming the paper inappropriate for publication on the grounds that its subject matter represented a significant departure from the journal's normal content and stating that it did not meet the scientific standards of the journal; Sternberg handled the
reviewPeer review is the process of subjecting an author's scholarly work, research, or ideas to the scrutiny of others who are experts in the same field. Peer review requires a community of experts in a given field, who are qualified and able to perform impartial review...
process entirely on his own, without the involvement of an associate editor, in contradiction of typical editorial practice. They stated that Sternberg went outside the usual review procedures to allow Meyer's article to be published, and that the paper was published "without the prior knowledge of the council, which includes officers, elected councilors, and past presidents, or associate editors." The Biological Society of Washington's president, Roy McDiarmid called Sternberg's decision "a really bad judgment call on the editor's part." The Council also refused to print a rebuttal of the article and stated that it believes there is no credible evidence for intelligent design to explain the origins of diverse life.
Sternberg disputes the publisher's statement and claims that, after the controversy became public, unnamed groups attempted to pressure the NIH to fire him and efforts were made to remove him from his role of research associate at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History. The result of the latter, he claims, was that "it was made clear to me that my current position at the Smithsonian will not be renewed." Sternberg filed a claim that afterward he was "targeted for retaliation and harassment" at the Smithsonian for his religious beliefs. The claim was rejected in August, 2005 on the grounds that Sternberg was not actually an employee. A report issued by Republican intelligent design advocates
Mark SouderMark Edward Souder is an American politician who will be serving his eighth term in the United States House of Representatives for...
and
Rick SantorumRichard John Santorum is a former United States Senator from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Santorum is a member of the Republican Party and was the chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, the number-three job in the party leadership of the Senate.Santorum is usually considered a social...
echoed Sternberg's claims about his treatment at the Smithsonian, but no action has resulted. The report was described by Steve Reuland as containing "extreme dishonesty", for claiming that "the Deputy Secretary [of the Smithsonian Institution]’s statement completely failed to address the central question of whether the harassment and discrimination identified in the OSC report took place", when the "things that the Smithsonian inquired about – Sternberg’s office space, access to collections, status as a Research Associate, etc. – were the very things that the alleged harassment and discrimination consisted of." The
Discovery InstituteThe Discovery Institute is a conservative non-profit public policy think tank based in Seattle, Washington, best known for its advocacy of intelligent design. Its Teach the Controversy campaign aims to teach creationist anti-evolution beliefs in United States public high school science courses...
often cites the Souder report as evidence that Sternberg specifically, and design proponents in general, are victims of persecution, and the Sternberg peer review controversy has become one of the examples of alleged discrimination often cited in the
Discovery Institute intelligent design campaignsDiscovery Institute intelligent design campaigns are a series of related public relations campaigns conducted by the Discovery Institute which seek to promote intelligent design while discrediting evolutionary biology, which the Institute terms "Darwinism." The Discovery Institute is the driving...
.
External links