Spotlight On: Lincoln Professor Jason Robert

  Honors & Awards

In July 2009, Dr Robert was named the Franca Oreffice Dean’s Distinguished Professor in the Life Sciences – quite an honor for a philosopher and ethicist! The Dean’s Distinguished Professors Program in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences celebrates the accomplishments of ASU’s finest professors and provides funds for research purposes.

In September 2009, Dr Robert was awarded a two-year, $262,457.00 grant from the National Science Foundation to explore “The whys and hows of establishing new model systems in biology and neuroscience”. This project builds on Dr Robert’s previous research, funded by the James S. McDonnell Foundation, about how scientists justify their research with non-human animals.

  Media Coverage

In September 2009, Dr Robert was interviewed by several local news stations on the ethics of biomedicine, and his popular Bioethics in Film class was described in a news release available, click here.

  Publications

• Marchant GE, Robert JS. Genetic Testing for Autism Predisposition: Ethical, Legal and Social Challenges.
• The Houston Journal of Health Law and Policy 9: 203-235 [2009]
• Miller FA, Robert JS, Hayeems RZ. Questioning the Consensus: Managing Carrier Status Results Generated by Newborn Screening. American Journal of Public Health 99: 209-215 [2009]

  Presentations

• In June 2009, Dr Robert gave the keynote Human Kinetics Lecture at the Annual Meeting of the North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity (Austin TX). His lecture was entitled “Human Ethology:   The Comparative Biology of Human Nature”.
• In September 2009, Dr Robert gave a presentation at Brain Matters: New Directions in Neuroethics (Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada) entitled “What Can We Learn About Human Brains by Studying Non-human Animals?”
• In October 2009, Dr Robert will give two lectures in the Washington DC area. The first will be in the Krasnow Institute Seminar Series at George Mason University, where he will present on the topic of “Human cognitive uniqueness in biomedical research: A bridge too far?”. The second will be at the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities, where he will lecture on “Failures of Translation in Biomedical Research: How Can Bioethicists Help?”
• In December 2009, Dr Robert will participate as an invited speaker on international research ethics at Science for Humanity in Gaborone, Botswana.

  Personal Stuff

Dr Robert has also been working hard on his fitness over the past few months, training in preparation for a sprint triathlon in 2010 and a full triathlon before 2012.