Interdisciplinary Initiatives Program Round 2 – 2002

Henry Greely, School of Law
Judy Illes, no longer at Stanford
Barbara Koenig, no longer at Stanford
Debra Satz, no longer at Stanford

The new program—to be led by Koenig (Center for Biomedical Ethics), Greely (School of Law), and Satz (Department of Philosophy)—will build on and expand existing inter-disciplinary collaborations. Our goal is to strengthen the “ethics infrastructure” of neuroscience research at Stanford by establishing: (1) a Faculty Development Seminar which will include a bi-monthly seminar series and journal club, (2) a new curriculum specifically devoted to ethical issues in the neurosciences, targeted to graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and clinical trainees, and, (3) a seed funding program for new research collaborations at the interface of ethics and neuroscience.

This model – beginning with the neurosciences to establish “upstream” collaboration between scientists, clinicians and bioethics scholars – represents an important advance over the way research is currently approached in the American academy, and will establish Stanford as a unique force in innovative, interdisciplinary research and teaching.