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Associate Professor

Frederic Gilbert

Associate Professor in Philosophy and Ethics

Philosophy and Gender Studies

Orcid identifier0000-0003-0524-8649
  • Associate Professor in Philosophy and Ethics
    Philosophy and Gender Studies
  • +61 3 6226 1703 (Work)
  • +61 3 6226 7847 (Fax)
  • School of Humanities, Philosophy and Gender Studies, 369 Humanities Building, Sandy Bay Campus, TAS

BIO

Frederic current research consists in exploring the ethics of novel implantable brain-computer interfaces operated by Artificial Intelligence (AI). He is a pioneer in some aspects of human-computer interactions, in particular the effects of AI on agent's sense of control, autonomy, agency and self, including while being treated for neurological and psychiatric conditions (for instance, Dementia, Severe Depression, Parkinson's, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, etc).

The New Yorker describes Frederic research has a “unique body of evidence”. Since being awarded his PhD, Frederic has developed expertise in neuroethical issues related to human experimental trials involving novel invasive technologies for treatment of neuropathologies, especially in the brain. Frederic is widely regarded as an innovator of the ethics of unproven protocol targeting human brain. His work is being referenced in various international policy-making. In addition, extremely rare for a mid-career stage philosopher, his work is cited and featured in some of the world’s highest impact factor scientific and medical journals, The Lancet, Nature, The Lancet Neurology, Nature Biotechnology, and Cell Stem Cells, amongst others.

Frederic research is regularly featured and portrayed in the media outlets, such as The New Yorker, Nature, Nature Medicine, The New York Times, The WIRED, New Scientist, MIT Technology Review, El Mundo, ABC Radio, Salon, Daily Beast, Radio Canada, and others (Full list here: https://sites.google.com/site/fredericgilbertt/cmedia?authuser=0)

The use of novel invasive brain technologies such as predictable brain devices, 3D printed biomaterials, and drug delivery systems have raised unprecedented ethical issues for research. Given the therapeutic potential and high risk of harms associated with synthetic biomedical applications, it is critical to identify the ethical issues before these novel applications are widely used in human clinical trials. Frederic's research explores ethical concerns in order to better articulate how current research trial guidelines can adequately address the specificities of these brain applications and contribute to the delivery of innovative medical research to the Australian healthcare system.

Trajectory:

Before joining The University of Tasmania, he completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the field of neuroethics at the Novel Tech Ethics, Department of Bioethics, Faculty of Medicine at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada. Frederic was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research with States of Mind: Emerging Issues in Neuroethics, and Therapeutic Hopes and Ethical Concerns: Clinical Research in the Neurosciences.

In 2015, Frederic was awarded an ARC DECRA Research Fellowship, entitled Invasive Synthetic Biomedical Brain Device: Ethical and Policy Implications.

In 2017-2018, Frederic was appointed as a Visiting Scientist at the Center of Neurotechnology at the University of Washington, Seattle. He was concomitantly an appointee researcher at the National Core for Neuroethics, Division of Neurosurgery, Department of Medicine at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver.

DEGREES

  • PhD
    University of Geneva, Switzerland2 Feb 2009

LANGUAGES

  • French
    Can peer review

SCHOOL AND PORTFOLIO

  • School of Humanities

FIELD OF RESEARCH