Falling Walls Circle – Round Table: Integrating Ethics and Public Engagement into Scientific Discovery

Lomax Boyd is a neuroscientist and bioethicist focused on understanding who we are as a species. His research investigating the origins of the human brain has provoked curiosity and wonder about what it means to be human, but also raised ethical questions about how to seek, understand, and incorporate public views in discovery science. Previously, Boyd served as a Civic Science Fellow examining the ethical issues raised by human brain organoids, and studied the evolution of human speech and language at The Rockefeller University as a postdoctoral fellow after receiving his PhD in neurogenetics from Duke University.

Jodi Halpern is Chancellor’s Chair and Professor of Bioethics at UC Berkeley where she is an international leader in the ethics of innovative technologies including AI, gene editing, and neuroscience. Her book, “From Detached Concern to Empathy: Humanizing Medicine,” catalyzed transformation in medicine. Her current work includes an upcoming book, “Remaking the Self in the Wake of Illness” (expected 2024), which illuminates post-traumatic growth, and “Engineering Empathy,” a research project that examines AI and therapeutic relationships. In addition to her research, Halpern has co-founded organizations that help early career scientists explore the ethical implications of their work, including the Berkeley Ethics and Regulation Group for Innovative Technologies, and the UC Berkeley Kavli Center for Ethics, Science, and the Public. Halpern received the Guggenheim 2022 Award in Medicine and Health.

Anna Middleton is a British psychologist, genetic counsellor, professor and Director of the Kavli Centre for Ethics, Science, and the Public at the University of Cambridge and Associate Director at Wellcome Connecting Science based at the Sanger Institute in Cambridge, UK. She researches how to communicate ethics of science with society. An innovator in public engagement, commissioner of film, and advocate of creative solutions for reaching disengaged audiences.

Vivienne Parry OBE is a British writer, broadcaster and facilitator best known for her role as a science communicator. A scientist by training, she has hosted many prestigious science events, but is also known for her extensive work with public and patients. She has a part time role as Head of Public Engagement at Genomics England. She was formerly Vice Chair of Council of UCL and on the board of UKRI, the body which oversees the UK’s £8 billion research budget. In the past she has been a newspaper and magazine columnist, a radio host and presented BBC TV’s iconic science show ‘Tomorrow’s World’