Public Engagement and Ethics Communication in Brain Research, Innovation, and Health

Katherine Bassil, received her PhD in neuroscience and neuroethics from Maastricht University in 2023. She is assistant professor in neuroethics at the Julius Center at the University Medical Center Utrecht (UMCU) in the Netherlands. She is a former Harvard Neuroethics Fellow (2022) and Niels Sentence Fellow(2024). Her research focuses on a range of work in the field of neuroethics including the ethics of biomarkers for psychiatric disorders, the moral value of neuroscience models, the ethics of AI in brain and mental healthcare, neuroethics communication, among others. Beyond her research, Dr. Bassil is engaged in science policy and public outreach. She is a committee member of the International Neuroethics Society(INS) and former co-lead of the public communication Affinity Group. She is also an editorial assistant at Neuroethics Canada where she assisted in the editing of several volumes in the Elsevier series Developments in Neuroethics and Bioethics. She is also involved in global neuroethics initiatives as the ethics lead for the IEEE Neuroethics Framework Wellness Workgroup, a member of the International Brain Initiative (IBI) Cross-cultural Working Group, the Research Ethics track lead at the Atlas Bioethics Center, and co-founder of the Arab Neuroethics Network. Dr. Bassil is also the founder of Neuroethics Today, and educational platform dedicated to raising awareness on neuroethics worldwide and democratizing neuroethics literacy.

Dr. Illes, trailblazing neuroethicist, is Professor of Neurology at the University of British Columbia (UBC), Distinguished University Scholar, UBC Distinguished Scholar in Neuroethics, and Director of Neuroethics Canada. She holds appointments in UBC’s School of Population and Public Health, and in Journalism, and in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Washington, in Seattle. She is a pioneer of the field of neuroethics through which she has made groundbreaking contributions to cross-cultural ethical, legal, social and policy challenges at the intersection of the brain sciences and biomedical ethics.

Dr. Illes received her PhD in Hearing and Speech Sciences and in Neuropsychology from Stanford University in 1987, and turned to ethics in 2000, 25 years ago. She was among the first to use high density EEG recordings and pattern recognition to understand language processing in neurodegenerative disease, and was part of the revolution that functional MRI introduced. Together with others whose vision for ethics for neuroscience led from within the neurosciences, Dr. Illes has not only placed neuroethics on the world map of , but has tirelessly trained the generation that leads it today, and already those who will lead it tomorrow.

Dr. Illes has published 11 edited volumes, including three handbooks in neuroethics and as Editor in Chief of the series of volumes for Developments in Neuroethics and Bioethics. She has led major research projects and hundreds of publications on invasive and noninvasive technologies, fixed and portable imaging systems such as MRI, biologics, pharmaceuticals, and devices, open science and intellectual property protections. In 2023, she released an award-winning film on neurotechnology ethics and decision-making for children with drug resistant epilepsy. Dr. Illes has also contributed significantly to the Canadian landscape in understanding crosscultural perspectives on brain and mind, including those of Indigenous People. She has received countless awards and recognitions for her empirical work and her mentoring alike.

Dr. Illes places a particular emphasis on issues of ethics in neuroscience with attention to biomedicine, innovations that seek to alleviate the burden of psychiatric and neurologic disease, including spinal cord injury, both expected and unexpected incidental findings, holism, human rights and health disparities. With this open and broad perspective, she capably leads the seven-nation International Brain Initiative dedicated to global neuroscience that is inclusive and politically free.

Dr. Illes was awarded the Order of Canada, one of the country’s highest recognition of its citizens, in 2017.

J. Lomax Boyd is a neuroscientist and ethicist. He investigates scientific and ethical questions raised by human brain models generated through genetic engineering, xenotransplantation, and in vitro brain organogenesis. His research explores the neurobiological mechanisms that contribute to human brain development, cognitive function, and moral status, with a particular interest in incorporating philosophical and empirical bioethics into neuroscientific research, training, and education. Currently, Dr. Boyd is an Assistant Research Professor at Johns Hopkins University and Visiting Fellow at The Rockefeller University, Laboratory of Neurogenetics of Language. He previously served as a Civic Science Fellow focused on ethical issues raised by human brain organoids and Fulbright Scholar in new media science communication. He conducted his postdoctoral research at The Rockefeller University on the neurobiological origins of spoken language and received his doctoral training in developmental neurobiology at Duke University, where he investigated genetic mechanisms of human corticogenesis and brain evolution.