Dr. James Giordano of Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, DC

Developments in neuroscience and neurotechnology are enabling ever expanding potential to access, assess and affect the brain, and engage these applications in medicine, public life and national security and defense operations. Such research and its uses spawn a host of technical, ethical, legal and social questions: What are the long-term effects of such neural modifications? Are there - and how might we define - the limits of such uses? How will these scientific and technological capabilities affect various domains of society? How might these capabilities be guided and governed - and who shall decide?

In this lecture, neuroscientist and neuroethicist Dr. James Giordano, IEEE Distinguished Lecturer and Professor of Neurology and Biochemistry, Chief of the Neuroethics Studies Program at Georgetown University Medical Center, and a Senior Research Fellow of the European Union Human Brain Project presents an overview of new and emerging developments in neuroscience and neurotechnology, addresses key neuroethical issues, questions, and problems forged by such advancements - and discusses possible paths toward their resolution.     

Biography:

James Giordano PhD, MPhil is Professor in the Departments of Neurology and Biochemistry, Chief of the Neuroethics Studies Program of the Pellegrino Center for Clinical Bioethics, and Co-director of the O’Neill-Pellegrino Program in Brain Science and Global Health Law and Policy at the Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington DC.  He is a Senior Research Fellow of the European Union’s Human Brain Project, working on neuroethical and regulatory issues in brain science; and serves as an appointed member of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary’s Advisory Council on Human Research Protections.  Prof. Giordano served as Senior Scientific Advisory Fellow to the Strategic Multilayer Assessment Branch of the Joint Staff of the Pentagon, and an appointed member of the Neuroethics, Legal and Social Issues Advisory Panel of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), working to assess medical and dual-use aspects of brain science.  As well, he is Visiting Professor of Brain Science and Ethics at the Coburg University of Applied Sciences, Coburg, Germany, and was formerly JW Fulbright Professor of Neuroscience and Neuroethics at the Ludwig Maximilians University, Munich.

A neuroscientist and neuroethicist with over 30 years’ experience in basic and translational research upon mechanisms of chronic pain and other neurological and psychiatric disorders, his current work focuses upon neuroethical and policy issues arising in and from the use of advanced neurotechnologies in medicine, public life, and national security. He is the author of over 260 publications and 7 books in neuroscience and neuroethics, and 15 governmental whitepapers on bioscience, biotechnology and biosecurity, and is the Co-Editor in Chief of the journal Philosophy, Ethics and Humanities in Medicine, and Associate Editor of the Cambridge Quarterly of Health Care Ethics. Prof. Giordano was awarded a PhD in biological psychology from the City University of New York; was NIEHS post-doctoral fellow in neurotoxicology and neuropathology at the Johns Hopkins University; APA Visiting Fellow in advanced neuroimaging at Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts General Hospital; and completed post-graduate training in bioethics and health policy at the Neiswanger Institute of Loyola University, Chicago.  In recognition of his work, he was elected to the European Academy of Science and Arts, and was named an IEEE Distinguished Lecturer.

Dr. James Giordano of Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, DC

Biography: