Judy Illes

Ph.D., Director, Program in Neuroethics, Center for Biomedical Ethics and Department of Radiology, Stanford University School of Medicine, USA

Judy Illes is Director of the Program in Neuroethics and Senior Research Scholar at the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics with a joint appointment in the Department of Radiology at Stanford University. Dr. Illes received her B.A. from Brandeis University in Massachusetts in Physiological Psychology (1979), and an M.A. in Physiological Psychology from McGill University (1983) in Montreal, Canada. In 1987, Dr. Illes received her doctorate in Hearing and Speech Sciences from Stanford University, with a specialization in Experimental Neuropsychology. Dr. Illes returned to Stanford University in 1991 to help build the research enterprise in imaging sciences in the Department of Radiology. She also co-founded the Stanford Brain Research Center (now the Neuroscience Institute at Stanford), and served as its first Executive Director between 1998 and 2001. Today, Dr. Illes directs a strong research team devoted to issues at the intersection of medical imaging and biomedical ethics, with a particular focus on the new field of neuroethics. These include ethical, social and legal challenges presented by advanced neurofunctional imaging capabilities, the emergence of cognitive enhancement neurotechnologies and pharmacology, self-referral to health care and imaging services, and clinical findings detected incidentally in research. New initiatives in neurogenetics, neuroscience database sharing and regenerative medicine are underway.

Dr. Illes has written numerous books, edited volumes and articles. She is the author of The Strategic Grant Seeker: Conceptualizing Fundable Research in the Brain and Behavioral Sciences (LEA Publishers, NJ), Special Guest Editor of Topics of Magnetic Resonance Imaging, “Emerging Ethical Challenges in MR Imaging”, and Brain and Cognition, “Ethical Challenges in Advanced Neuroimaging.” Her latest book, Neuroethics: Defining the Issues in Theory, Practice and Policy, is forthcoming (Oxford University Press).

Dr. Illes is co-Chair of the Committee on Women in Neuroscience for the Society for Neuroscience, and a member of the Internal Advisory Board for the Institute of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction (INMHA) of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).

Competing Interests/Conflicts of Interest: None to declare in the past year.