Paul Root Wolpe

Paul Root Wolpe, Ph.D. is the Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Bioethics, Raymond Schinazi Distinguished Research Professor of Jewish Bioethics, Professor of Medicine, Pediatrics, Psychiatry, Neuroscience and Biological Behavior, and Sociology, and the Director of the Center for Ethics at Emory University. Dr. Wolpe also serves as the first Senior Bioethicist at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). He is Editor-in-Chief of American Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience, the leading journal in neuroethics, and he sits on the editorial boards of over a dozen professional journals in medicine and ethics. Dr. Wolpe is a past President of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities, a Fellow of the Hastings Center, and a Fellow of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, the country’s oldest medical society. Trained as a social scientist – a rare background for a ethicist – Dr. Wolpe’s work focuses on the social, religious, ethical, and ideological impact of medicine and technology on the human condition. Considered one of the founders of the field of neuroethics, which examines the ethical implications of neuroscience, he also writes and teaches about genetics, death and dying, reproductive technologies, and religious, cultural, and ideological perspectives on health, biology, and the human condition. Dr. Wolpe’s interests are not limited to medicine and technology. A sought-after consultant on business ethics and the ethics of philanthropy, he was named one of Trust Across America’s “Top 100 Thought Leaders in Trustworthy Business Behavior.” A leader in integrating the arts into education, Dr. Wolpe nurtured the Center for Ethics’ singular “Ethics & the Arts” Program which partners with artistic institutions to explore the use of art in ethical engagement and the ethics of artistic production and display. Dr. Wolpe sits on national and international non-profit organizational boards and working groups, and is a consultant to academic institutions and the biomedical industry. He has twice testified to President Obama’s Commission on the Study of Bioethical Issues in Washington, DC, on ethical issues in synthetic biology and in neuroscience. A dynamic and popular speaker internationally, Dr. Wolpe has been chosen by the website Faculty Row as a “SuperProfessor” and by The Teaching Company as a "Superstar Teacher of America," and his courses are distributed internationally on audio and videotape. He won the 2011 World Technology Network Award in Ethics, has recorded a TED Talk, and was profiled in the November, 2011 Atlantic Magazine as a “Brave Thinker of 2011.” Dr. Wolpe is a frequent contributor and commentator in both the broadcast and print media, having been featured on 60 Minutes and with a personal profile in the Science Times of the New York Times.