Julian Savulescu's areas of research include: the ethics of genetics, especially predictive genetic testing, pre implantation genetic diagnosis, prenatal testing, behavioural genetics, genetic enhancement, gene therapy. Research ethics, especially ethics of embryo research, including embryonic stem cell research. New forms of reproduction, including cloning and assisted reproduction . Medical ethics, including end of life decision-making, resource allocation, consent, confidentiality, decision-making involving incompetent people, and other areas. Sports ethics. The analytic philosophical basis of practical ethics.
Roger Crisp's research interests are in
Ethics, Political Philosophy, and Ancient Philosophy. After studing for a BA in Lit. Hum. (Classics) at Oxford Dr Crisp went on to complete a B.Phil
and D.Phil before becoming a Junior Lecturer in Philosophy, Magdalen College, Oxford. He has since held various posts, including Lecturer in Philosophy, St Anne’s College, Oxford, Lecturer in Philosophy, Hertford College, Oxford, British Academy Postdoctoral Research Fellow and Honorary Junior Research Fellow, University College, Oxford. He is currently Uehiro Fellow and Tutor in Philosophy at St Anne's College, and Chair of the Management Committee of the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics.
Dr. Guy Kahane
Deputy Director and Research Fellow
Guy Kahane’s areas of research include value theory, meta-ethics, practical ethics, the history of ethics, and the philosophy and ethics of neuroscience. He is especially interested in questions about the nature and value of pain and suffering.He is currently heading a two-year project on neuroethics, funded by the John Fell OUP Research Fund and is a Fulford Junior Research Fellow at Somerville College.
Simon Rippon holds a joint Fellowship between the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics and the Harvard University Program in Ethics and Health. His areas of research interest include metaethics, moral epistemology, bioethics, and political philosophy. Currently he is researching topics including the the nature of moral expertise and its significance for health policy, the therapy/enhancement distinction, conscientious objection, and idealized moral disagreement.
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Dr. Barbro Fröding
Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow
Dr Fröding is Hardie Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Lincoln College, and Marie Cure Postdoctoral fellow at the Centre. Her research addresses human enhancement from a virtue ethics perspective, and the philosophical dimensions of ownership of biological material. She is especially interested in Aristotelian virtue ethics.
Russell Powell is the Arts and Humanities Research Council Fellow on the Science and Religious Conflict Project at the Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, and a Research Associate for both the Oxford Centre for Neuroethics and the Program on Ethics and the New Biosciences. Prior to his appointment at Oxford, Russell was a Greenwall Postdoctoral Fellow at Johns Hopkins University, and a Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy and a Senior Research Scholar in the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University. He received his B.A. in philosophy (summa cum laude) from Binghamton University (1999), Juris Doctor (cum laude) from NYU Law School (2002), and Ph.D. in Philosophy from Duke University (2008). Russell’s academic interests are wide-ranging and highly interdisciplinary: he has published in areas ranging from political and legal philosophy to the philosophy of science and bioethics, in journals such as the Journal of Philosophy, Journal of Political Philosophy, Biology and Philosophy, Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, and the Australian Journal of Legal Philosophy.
Steve Clarke is named Research Fellow on the AHRC funded project ‘Science and Religious Conflict’. He is on leave from the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics in Australia (until 2012) where he is a Senior Research Fellow. He holds a PhD in Philosophy from Monash University and has previously held appointments at the University of Melbourne, the University of Cape Town and La Trobe University. Steve is a broad-ranging philosopher who has published in such journals as The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, Synthese, Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, Philosophical Psychology and the Journal of Risk Research.
Professor Jonathan Glover
Distinguished Research Fellow
Professor Janet Radcliffe-Richards
Distinguished Research Fellow
Janet Radcliffe-Richards is Professor of Practical Philosophy and Distinguished Research Fellow at the Oxford Uehiro Centre. She was until 2007 Director of Bioethics in the medical school at University College London, and previously a member of the Philosophy Department of the Open University. She originally worked on metaphysics and philosophy of science, but for many years now has concentrated on the practical applications of philosophy, with books on topics such as feminism (The Sceptical Feminist, 1980), discrimination and inequality (Philosophical Problems of Equality, 1996) and the implications of Darwinian theory (Human Nature after Darwin, 2000). She is currently preparing her UCL work on medical ethics for publication, but hope afterwards return to her work on discrimination and equality, on the complex connections between science and ethics, and on techniques of practical reasoning in general. Her regular Oxford days are Tuesday - Thursday
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Professor Walter Sinnott-Armstrong
Distinguished Research Fellow
Walter Sinnott-Armstrong is Professor of Philosophy and Hardy Professor of Legal Studies at Dartmouth College, where he has taught since 1981 after receiving a B.A. from Amherst College and a Ph.D. from Yale University. He is Vice-Chair of the Board of Officers of the American Philosophical Association and Co-director of the MacArthur Law and Neuroscience Program. He has published extensively on ethics (theoretical and applied), philosophy of law, epistemology, philosophy of religion, and informal logic. His current research focuses on empirical moral psychology as well as law and neuroscience.
Professor Barbara Sahakian
Distinguished Research Fellow
Barbara J Sahakian is Professor of Clinical Neuropsychology at the Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine and Honorary Consultant Clinic Psychologist at Addenbrooke's Hospital. She has an international reputation in the fields of cognitive psychopharmacology, neuroethics, neuropsychology, neuropsychiatry and neuroimaging. She is particularly interested in the training of 21st century neuroscientists in neuroethics and in the engagement of the public in science. She is co-inventor of the CANTAB computerised neuropsychological tests, which are in use world-wide. She is probably best known for her research work on cognition and depression, cognitive enhancement using pharmacological treatments, neuroethics and early detection of Alzheimer's disease. Her current programme of research, funded by the Wellcome Trust and Medical Research Council, investigates the neurochemical modulation of impulsive and compulsive behaviour in neuropsychiatric disorders, such as unipolar and bipolar depression and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Professor Sahakian is a Fellow of Clare Hall and Bye-Fellow of Christ's College. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, and has also been awarded the Distinguished Scholars Award for 2009 from the University of Pennsylvania
Professor Bill Fulford
Distinguished Research Fellow
Bill (KWM) Fulford is Professor of Philosophy and Mental Health in the University of Warwick Medical School; Fellow of St Cross College; Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist and member of the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Oxford; Professor of Philosophy and Psychiatry and Co-Director of the Institute for Philosophy, Diversity and Mental Health at UCLan. He is Lead Editor for the Oxford book series International Perspectives in Philosophy and Psychiatry, and Founder and Co-editor with John Sadler of the international journal Philosophy, Psychiatry, & Psychology (PPP). He is also Special Adviser for Values-Based Practice in the Department of Health, London.
Professor Luciano Floridi
Distinguished Research Fellow
Dr Nick Shackel Distinguished Research Fellow
Nicholas Shackel's research includes work on rationality, epistemic ethics, metaethics and the neuroscience of normative judgement. He received his PhD in philosophy from the University of Nottingham, has taught at a number of UK universities and was a Research Fellow in the Future of Humanity Institute before taking up a lectureship at Cardiff University.
Professor Ingmar Persson
Distinguished Research Fellow
Dr. David Edmonds
Research Associate
David Edmonds spends most of his working life at the BBC World Service. He’s made programmes in more than fifty countries - several of his documentaries have won awards. He has undergraduate and graduate philosophy degrees from Oxford University, and a PhD in philosophy from the Open University. From 1993-4 he was a Harkness Fellow at the University of Chicago and in 2002 held a journalist fellowship at the University of Michigan. With Nigel Warburton he co-hosts Philosophy Bites, which has had over three million downloads. He has written four books, three with co-author, John Eidinow. They include Bobby Fischer Goes To War and the international best-seller Wittgenstein’s Poker, which was short-listed for the Guardian First Book award and was translated into 25 languages (its most zealous promoter was William Jefferson Clinton).
Dr. Lachlan de Crespigny
Research Associate
Associate Professor Lachlan de Crespigny is an Obstetrician and Gynaecologist who practices exclusively in prenatal testing and gynaecologic ultrasound. He is a Principal Fellow in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Melbourne and is an Honorary Fellow of the Murdoch Children's Research Institute. He is in private ultrasound practice. He has long had an interest in research in his specialty and has published widely in Australian and International journals. His recent topics include ethics and abortion.
He is coauthor of Prenatal Tests: The Facts (OUP 2005)
Dr. Anders Sandberg
Research Associate
Dr Sandberg is currently working on the ENHANCE project, an EU funded collaborative research effort studying human enhancment. Anders is working on the cognitive enhancement aspect of the project.
Nick Bostrom 's research areas include ethics, philosophy of science, and the foundations of probability theory. Much of his current work focuses on ethical and policy issues in technology and science, especially: emerging technologies, risk analysis, artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, genetic engineering, and human enhancement technologies.
Gustaf Arrhenius is a Torgny Segerstedt Pro Futura Fellow at Stockholm University and SCASSS since January 2005. His research interests are primarily in moral and political philosophy, and he’s especially interested in issues in the intersection between moral and political philosophy and the medical and social sciences (e.g., economics, law, and political science). He has written extensively on our moral obligations to future generations, applying the methods of social choice and game theory. Currently he’s researching issues in population ethics, the structure of value, democratic theory, equal opportunity and affirmative action, and ethical problems in paediatric research.
Minou Friele is research associate and lecturer at the chair of practical philosophy at the Heinrich-Heine-University Duesseldorf, where she currently completes her habilitation (postdoctoral lecture qualification, required for a full professorship at German universities) and writes on “The ethics of moral compromise”. She is especially interested in the ethical requirements of co-operations in spite of persistent moral disagreements, particularly if such co-operation requires negotiations or compromise in moral values and principles.
Her research interests include biomedical ethics in relation to philosophy of law and political philosophy, with a particular focus on questions related to globalisation processes and on philosophical implications of new scientific and technological developments for human self-understanding; public health ethics and business ethics.
Toby Ord's research interests encompass both theoretical and practical ethics. He is currently focusing on Moral Uncertainty: the study of how we are to act when we are uncertain about the relevant moral issues. This has been a much neglected topic in ethics, but has received increasing attention in recent years. He is developing theoretical underpinnings for decision making under moral uncertainty as well as looking at the implications for practical controversies. In addition, he is working on the ethics of global poverty and global catastrophic risk.
Thomas Douglas's research interests lie in normative and applied ethics (especially neuroethics) and political philosophy. He is currently focussing on the ethics of human enhancement and some related questions about moral motivation, compensation for natural misfortune, and policymaking under conditions of uncertainty. He is also working on organ procurement policy.
He has recently been awarded a Wellcome Trust Research Fellowship in Biomedical Ethics which he will take up in the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics and the Faculty of Philosophy from October 2009. Tom will investigate philosophical issues raised by dual-use biomedical research (research that may be used in both benevolent and malevolent ways), focusing in particular on synthetic biology and the neuroscience of morality. He will consider, among other questions, (1) what likely uses of research in these areas would qualify as malevolent/benevolent, and (2) how (if at all) scientists and policymakers should weigh possible malevolent and benevolent uses of research against one another in deciding whether to engage in or promote dual-use biomedical research.
Seth Lazar researches and teaches normative and applied ethics, and political philosophy. His doctoral research focuses on the nature of associative duties—i.e. duties grounded in our special relationships—and in particular their role in the ethics of war. He is also a professional travel and landscape photographer.
Joachim Tan's research areas include political philosophy, ethics and philosophy of science. He is especially interested in the moral and epistemological dimensions of Liberal Neutrality, Toleration and Multiculturalism. His postdoctoral research focuses on the importance of personal autonomy in the context of its contribution to human flourishing and well-being, with a view to developing principled constraints on legislation and policy in the areas of education, medicine, marriage, religion and support for the arts.
Professor Allen Buchanan, Leverhulme Visiting Professor
Professor Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, Leverhulme Visiting Professor
Dr. Taro Okuda, Nanzan University
Francesca Minerva, PhD Candidate, Bologna University
Sandrine Blanc, PhD Candidate, The Sorbonne
Dr Adam Briggle, University of Twente
In 2006, Adam Briggle received his interdisciplinary PhD in Environmental Studies from the University of Colorado. His training was in the analysis of problems at the intersections of science, technology, philosophy, and policy. He wrote his dissertation on the U.S. President’s Council on Bioethics from both a philosophical and political perspective. After extensive revision, this work is currently pending final approval for publication by the University of Notre Dame Press under the working title of Public Bioethics and the Kass Council: Democracy, Technology, and the Good Life.
Briggle has been working the past three years in the Philosophy Department at the University of Twente, the Netherlands—a leader in the study of the ethical and cultural dimensions of science and technology. His latest research is part of a five-member project titled “Evaluating the Cultural Quality of New Media.” Briggle’s focus within this project has been on the question of how the mediation of personal relationships influences their nature and value. He is working with his colleagues Philip Brey and Edward Spence to edit a book titled The Good Life in a Technological Age, which is based on a workshop held at Twente in 2008.
In August, Briggle will begin a new appointment as an assistant professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religion Studies at the University of North Texas. In this position, he will continue teaching and researching on the philosophy and ethics of science and technology broadly, with an emphasis on bioethics.
His intention with this visit to Oxford University and the Uehiro Centre is to broaden his professional network by meeting with other scholars interested in the philosophy and politics of science and technology and/or with the role of philosophy in the contemporary world. He is eager to learn from some of the best thinkers in this interdisciplinary terrain, and he hopes that these informal meetings will seed future collaborations.
Past Visitors
Dr. Jens Johansson
Professor Loane Skene, University of Melbourne
Dr. Telma de Souza Birchal
Julian Savulescu's areas of research include: the ethics of genetics, especially predictive genetic testing, pre implantation genetic diagnosis, prenatal testing, behavioural genetics, genetic enhancement, gene therapy. Research ethics, especially ethics of embryo research, including embryonic stem cell research. New forms of reproduction, including cloning and assisted reproduction . Medical ethics, including end of life decision-making, resource allocation, consent, confidentiality, decision-making involving incompetent people, and other areas. Sports ethics. The analytic philosophical basis of practical ethics.
Simon Rippon holds a joint Fellowship between the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics and the Harvard University Program in Ethics and Health. His areas of research interest include metaethics, moral epistemology, bioethics, and political philosophy. Currently he is researching topics including the the nature of moral expertise and its significance for health policy, the therapy/enhancement distinction, conscientious objection, and idealized moral disagreement.
Janet Radcliffe-Richards is Professor of Practical Philosophy and Distinguished Research Fellow at the Oxford Uehiro Centre. She was until 2007 Director of Bioethics in the medical school at University College London, and previously a member of the Philosophy Department of the Open University. She originally worked on metaphysics and philosophy of science, but for many years now has concentrated on the practical applications of philosophy, with books on topics such as feminism (The Sceptical Feminist, 1980), discrimination and inequality (Philosophical Problems of Equality, 1996) and the implications of Darwinian theory (Human Nature after Darwin, 2000). She is currently preparing her UCL work on medical ethics for publication, but hope afterwards return to her work on discrimination and equality, on the complex connections between science and ethics, and on techniques of practical reasoning in general. Her regular Oxford days are Tuesday - Thursday
Walter Sinnott-Armstrong is Professor of Philosophy and Hardy Professor of Legal Studies at Dartmouth College, where he has taught since 1981 after receiving a B.A. from Amherst College and a Ph.D. from Yale University. He is Vice-Chair of the Board of Officers of the American Philosophical Association and Co-director of the MacArthur Law and Neuroscience Program. He has published extensively on ethics (theoretical and applied), philosophy of law, epistemology, philosophy of religion, and informal logic. His current research focuses on empirical moral psychology as well as law and neuroscience. 
Barbara J Sahakian is Professor of Clinical Neuropsychology at the Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine and Honorary Consultant Clinic Psychologist at Addenbrooke's Hospital. She has an international reputation in the fields of cognitive psychopharmacology, neuroethics, neuropsychology, neuropsychiatry and neuroimaging. She is particularly interested in the training of 21st century neuroscientists in neuroethics and in the engagement of the public in science. She is co-inventor of the CANTAB computerised neuropsychological tests, which are in use world-wide. She is probably best known for her research work on cognition and depression, cognitive enhancement using pharmacological treatments, neuroethics and early detection of Alzheimer's disease. Her current programme of research, funded by the Wellcome Trust and Medical Research Council, investigates the neurochemical modulation of impulsive and compulsive behaviour in neuropsychiatric disorders, such as unipolar and bipolar depression and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Professor Sahakian is a Fellow of Clare Hall and Bye-Fellow of Christ's College. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, and has also been awarded the Distinguished Scholars Award for 2009 from the University of Pennsylvania
Bill (KWM) Fulford is Professor of Philosophy and Mental Health in the University of Warwick Medical School; Fellow of St Cross College; Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist and member of the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Oxford; Professor of Philosophy and Psychiatry and Co-Director of the Institute for Philosophy, Diversity and Mental Health at UCLan. He is Lead Editor for the Oxford book series International Perspectives in Philosophy and Psychiatry, and Founder and Co-editor with John Sadler of the international journal Philosophy, Psychiatry, & Psychology (PPP). He is also Special Adviser for Values-Based Practice in the Department of Health, London.
Nicholas Shackel's research includes work on rationality, epistemic ethics, metaethics and the neuroscience of normative judgement. He received his PhD in philosophy from the University of Nottingham, has taught at a number of UK universities and was a Research Fellow in the Future of Humanity Institute before taking up a lectureship at Cardiff University.
David Edmonds spends most of his working life at the BBC World Service. He’s made programmes in more than fifty countries - several of his documentaries have won awards. He has undergraduate and graduate philosophy degrees from Oxford University, and a PhD in philosophy from the Open University. From 1993-4 he was a Harkness Fellow at the University of Chicago and in 2002 held a journalist fellowship at the University of Michigan. With Nigel Warburton he co-hosts 
Associate Professor Lachlan de Crespigny is an Obstetrician and Gynaecologist who practices exclusively in prenatal testing and gynaecologic ultrasound. He is a Principal Fellow in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Melbourne and is an Honorary Fellow of the Murdoch Children's Research Institute. He is in private ultrasound practice. He has long had an interest in research in his specialty and has published widely in Australian and International journals. His recent topics include ethics and abortion.
Nick Bostrom 's research areas include ethics, philosophy of science, and the foundations of probability theory. Much of his current work focuses on ethical and policy issues in technology and science, especially: emerging technologies, risk analysis, artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, genetic engineering, and human enhancement technologies.
Seth Lazar researches and teaches normative and applied ethics, and political philosophy. His doctoral research focuses on the nature of associative duties—i.e. duties grounded in our special relationships—and in particular their role in the ethics of war. He is also a professional travel and landscape photographer.
Joachim Tan's research areas include political philosophy, ethics and philosophy of science. He is especially interested in the moral and epistemological dimensions of Liberal Neutrality, Toleration and Multiculturalism. His postdoctoral research focuses on the importance of personal autonomy in the context of its contribution to human flourishing and well-being, with a view to developing principled constraints on legislation and policy in the areas of education, medicine, marriage, religion and support for the arts. 