Masterclass: Innovations in Neuroscience

Join us for this special UWA Institute of Advanced Studies Masterclass with Dr Karen Rommelfanger, founder and director of the Institute of Neuroethics Think and Do Tank.

15 July 2025, 10am-12.30pm, UWA Institute of Advanced Studies

In this masterclass, Professor Rommelfanger will discuss cross-cultural perspectives on ethical issues related to a survey on neuroscience innovations. The session will also include interactive and hands on activity.

IAS Masterclasses are intended to be cross-disciplinary, and attendees are welcome across all relevant disciplines and from all WA Research Centres. Participants are encouraged to discuss their research within the framework of the stated topic.

• Attendance is free, however numbers are limited, and prior registration is required.

Dr. Karen S. Rommelfanger is a neurotech ethicist and strategist. She is founder and director of the Institute of Neuroethics (IoNx), the first think tank wholly dedicated to neuroethics. IoNx works with builders, decision-makers, and users to enable trusted neuroscience for all. Her lab, the Neuroethics and Neurotech Innovation Collaboratory explores how evolving neuroscience challenges societal definitions of disease and wellness, cross-cultural neuroethics, and cross-sectoral neuroethics policy. Her boutique consultancy Ningen Neuroethics Co-Lab works specifically on applied neuroethics and strategy.

Dr. Rommelfanger maintains a professorship in Emory University’s Departments of Neurology and Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences where she founded Emory’s Neuroethics Program. She received her PhD in neuroscience and postdoctoral training in neuroscience, neural engineering, and neuroethics. Her scholarship has been published in high impact journals such as Nature, Neuron, and PNAS and she co-edited the Handbook of Neuroethics. She serves as the first neuroethicist editor at Neuron, served as senior editor of the American Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience and executive board member of the International Neuroethics Society.

In recognition of her neuroethics stewardship in the neuroscience community, she was appointed to the US National Institute of Health (NIH) BRAIN Initiative Neuroethics Working Group, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) ELSI Neurotechnology Panel, and the National Academies of Science Engineering and Medicine working group on focused on responsible innovation of neuroscience in Southeast Asia.

She has consulted for the OECD’s implementation guidance for the first international standard in responsible innovation for neurotechnology, served as rapporteur for the Council of Europe to assess proposal for novel neurorights, and is the senior neuroethics advisor for GESDA a Science and Diplomacy entity that works deeply with the UN Ambassador community. Dedicated to cross-cultural work in neuroethics, she co-chaired of the Global Neuroethics Workgroup of the International Brain Initiative, a consortium of large-scale national-level brain research projects and served on the World Economic Forum’s Global Futures Council. She is a frequent contributor and commentator in national and international media on neuroethics strategy, neurotech innovation, and policy.

Professor Rommelfanger visits UWA as a UWA Institute of Advanced Studies Visiting Fellow and is a keynote speaker at the 2025 Politics of the Machines (POM) Conference - Synthetic Sentience, 15-18 July at The University of Western Australia.