Bioethicist Jodi Halpern Joins Computer Scientist Stuart Russell as Co-Director of Kavli Center for Ethics, Science, and the Public

UC Berkeley Kavli Center for Ethics, Science, and the Public announced that Professor Jodi Halpern has been appointed as the new Co-Director, joining Stuart Russell, a computer scientist and the inaugural Faculty Director, to jointly lead the Center.

Halpern, a co-founder of the Kavli Center and an active member of the Steering Committee, has played a pivotal role in the Center's development, including integrating the work of the Berkeley Ethics and Regulation Group for Innovative Technologies with our fellowship program. She holds a University Chair and is a Professor of Bioethics at UC Berkeley. Her interdisciplinary research combines psychiatry, philosophy, and affective forecasting to explore the societal impacts of innovative technologies.

This partnership between Halpern and Russell reflects the Center's deep commitment to bridging the disciplines and fostering dialogue between scientists and humanities scholars.

“Jodi Halpern embodies in a single person the multidisciplinary spirit of the Kavli Center. She has a long history of working across boundaries to solve ethical problems and has been central to the success of our Fellows program. I look forward to working with her to achieve the Center's mission,” shared Russell.

“Jodi Halpern’s deep expertise at the intersection of research, philosophy, and community engagement is an enormous asset to the Kavli Center. Her commitment to training the next generation of scientists, and instilling principles of empathetic listening, will continue to strengthen the Center’s work as she moves into a Co-Director role," stated Brooke Smith, director of Science and Society at the foundation. "The Kavli Center is fortunate to be led by Drs. Halpern and Russell, demonstrating the importance of cross-disciplinary approaches to science to ensure science benefits humanity."

Two Kavli Centers for Ethics, Science, and the Public were first announced in December 2021, one at UC Berkeley and another at the University of Cambridge. Each Center aims to engage publics in exploring ethical and societal implications born from scientific discovery.

Read more about the co-directors and The Kavli Center for Ethics, Science, and the Public in the UC Berkeley announcement.