We are honored to present James Giordano, PhD, DPhil, Professor Emeritus of Neurology and Biochemistry, and Chair Emeritus, Neuroethics Program, Georgetown University Medical Center, as a keynote speaker for our Online Winter School – Bioethics in the New World Order, December 14-18, 2026.

BOLD NEW NEUROTECHNOLOGIES… BRAVE NEW NEUROETHICS

ABSTRACT

Current and emerging neurotechnologies are affording boldly unparalleled ability to assess, access, and affect the human brain and its functions of cognition, emotion, and behavior. In many ways, this trajectory is forging an iterative, multidimensional interface between machines and minds, as advancements in neurotechnology are being multinationally developed and engaged in a variety of applications in medicine, daily life, and human relations across scales and cultures upon the global stage. While aimed at achieving definable goods, such bold strides also generate questions and issues of ‘good for whom; in what ways, and with what burdens, risks or harms?’ To address these concerns, an approach to neuroethics is proposed that is cosmopolitan in scope, focal in vision, principled in form and brave in its functions to prescribe and not just proscribe, and be creative and not merely constraining.

BIO

James Giordano, PhD, DPhil, is Professor Emeritus of Neurology and Biochemistry, and Chair Emeritus of the Neuroethics Studies Program at Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington DC. Professor Giordano is also Chair Emeritus of the IEEE Brain Initiative Project on Neurotechnology and Ethics; and served as Senior Bioethicist of the Defense Medical Ethics Center and Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry and Public Health at the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences; Senior Science Advisory Fellow of the Strategic Multilayer Assessment Branch of the Joint Staff, Pentagon; Fellow and Task Leader of the Neuroethics Study Section of the European Union Human Brain Project. He was an elected member of the Department of Health and Human Services Secretary’s Advisory Committee for Human Research Protections; Fulbright Professor of Neuroscience and Neuroethics at the Ludwig Maximilians University, Munich, GER; Associate Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Neuroethics, University of Oxford, UK; and was an elected founding member of the Neuroethics, Legal, and Social Issues Advisory Panel of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Prof. Giordano has served as a senior bioscientific, biotechnology, and ethics advisor to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD); the World Health Organization (WHO); UNESCO, and several international bioscientific and biotechnological commercial entities.

 

James Giordano, PhD, DPhil, Professor Emeritus of Neurology and Biochemistry, and Chair Emeritus, Neuroethics Program, Georgetown University Medical Center.