Nita Farahany

Nita A. Farahany is the Robinson O. Everett Distinguished Professor of Law & Philosophy and Founding Director of the Duke Initiative for Science & Society. She is a widely published scholar on the ethics of emerging technologies, including the forthcoming book The Battle for Your Brain: Defending Your Right to Think Freely in the Age of Neurotechnology (St. Martin’s Press 2023). Farahany is a frequent commentator for national media and radio and keynote speaker at events including TED, the Aspen Ideas Festival, the World Economic Forum, and judicial conferences worldwide. From 2010-2017, she served as a Commissioner on the U.S. Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues. She currently serves on the National Advisory Council for the National Institute for Neurological Disease and Stroke, as an elected member of the American Law Institute, Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, immediate past President of the International Neuroethics Society, ELSI advisor to the NIH Brain Initiative and to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, member of the Forum on Neuroscience and Nervous System Disorders and the Standing Committee on Biotechnology Capabilities and National Security Needs for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, the Global Future Council on Frontier Risks for the World Economic Forum. She is the Reporter for the Drafting Committee on updating the Uniform Determination of Death Committee for the Uniform Law Commission (ULC), as well as a ULC Commissioner. Farahany is a co-editor-in-chief of the Journal of Law and the Biosciences and on the Board of Advisors for Scientific American. She also serves on scientific and ethics advisory boards for corporations. Farahany holds an AB (Genetics) from Dartmouth College, an ALM (Biology) from Harvard University, and a JD, MA, and Ph.D. (Philosophy) from Duke University.