Jodi Halpern

Jodi Halpern, MD, PhD holds a Chancellor’s Chair and is Professor of Bioethics and Medical Humanities at the University of California, Berkeley. Her work brings together psychiatry, psychoanalysis and philosophy to explore how people imagine and influence their own and each other’s future health. Halpern’s first book, From Detached Concern to Empathy: Humanizing Medical Practice was called a “seminal work” by leading academic journals. Her conception of clinical empathy as engaged curiosity has influenced multiple fields and catalyzed a wave of change in medical education. Her current book project Remaking the Self in the Wake of Illness critically rethinks post-traumatic growth and illuminates how people find sources of emotional security at a time of radical uncertainty, individually and collectively.

In addition to her theoretical writing, Halpern conducts embedded research with scientists developing new technologies including gene editing and artificial intelligence. Her analysis of how technology transforms human identities and relationships informs her international speaking about safeguarding human rights, respect for persons and social justice. Halpern is the co-founder and faculty lead of the Berkeley Group for the Ethics and Regulation of Innovative Technologies and founding faculty for the Kavli Center for Science, Ethics and the Public.