Council Members
Download a register of Council members' interests
Professor Jonathan Montgomery (Chair)
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Jonathan Montgomery is Professor of Health Care Law at the University of Southampton and Chair of Hampshire Primary Care Trust. He also chairs the Advisory Committee of Clinical Excellence Awards and the Scientific Steering Committee for Brain Banks UK, and he is a member of the Government’s Committee on the Ethical Aspects of Pandemic Influenza. He is the author of a leading textbook on Health Care Law and numerous articles. Find out more.
Tom Baldwin is Professor of Philosophy, University of York. He is a co-opted member of Council for the duration of the Working Party on novel neurotechnologies
Steve Brown is Director of the Medical Research Council Mammalian Genetics Unit in Harwell, Oxfordshire. He is Editor of Mammalian Genome and was a member of the Council’s Working Party on the ethics of animal research. He specialises in mouse and mammalian genetics, with a particular interest in the genetic bases of hearing loss.
Amanda Burls is Director of Postgraduate Programmes in Evidence-Based Health Care, and a Senior Fellow of the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine, at the University of Oxford. She works on the International Network for Knowledge about Wellbeing (ThinkWell). She was Director of the West Midlands Health Technology Assessment Collaboration until 2007.
Professor of Applied Theology, University of Kent. He was Chair of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Medical Ethics Advisory Committee 1993-2006. He has published a number of books on theological aspects of bioethics including Christian ethics and values, health care and genetics.
Professor Sian Harding FAHA FESC
Professor of Cardiac Pharmacology at the National Heart And Lung Institute, a Division of the Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London. Member of the Central Ethical Review Committee for Animal Studies and a Designated Person for administration of the Human Tissue Act. Scientific interests include gene and cell therapy for heart disease.
Ray Hill was Head of Licensing and External Research for Europe at Merck, Sharp and Dohme until his retirement in May 2008. He is a pharmacologist with a special interest in pain and headache research and is a Visiting Professor at Imperial College London and Bristol, Surrey and Strathclyde Universities. He is a non-executive Director of several biotech companies and Honorary Biomedical Business Development Advisor at Imperial College London. He is President Emeritus of the British Pharmacological Society.
Søren Holm is Professor of Bioethics at the University of Manchester and part-time Professor of Medical Ethics at the University of Oslo, Norway. He is a medical doctor and philosopher and a former member of the Danish Council of Ethics. He is President of the European Society for Philosophy of Medicine and Health Care and joint Editor in Chief of the Journal of Medical Ethics.
Rhona Knight has a portfolio career in medicine. She works as a General Practitioner in Leicester, and is Senior Clinical Educator at the University of Leicester. She has an interest in making bioethical issues accessible and understandable to non-specialist audiences, and is Chair of the Council's Education Advisory Group.
Graeme Laurie is Professor of Medical Jurisprudence at the University of Edinburgh and Director of the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Research Centre for Studies in Intellectual Property and Technology Law. His research interests include the role of law in promoting and regulating science, medicine and technology. He was a member of the Council’s Working Party on the Forensic use of bioinformation: ethical issues.
Tim Lewens is a Reader in Philosophy of the Sciences, Department of History and Philosophy of Science, and Fellow of Clare College, University of Cambridge. He has been Co-Chair of the Cambridge Bioethics Forum since 2002. His primary research interests are the philosophy of biology, philosophy of science and bioethics.
Professor Ottoline Leyser CBE FRS
Ottoline Leyser is Professor of Plant Development and Associate Director of the Sainsbury Laboratory at the University of Cambridge. She is a Member of Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) Strategy Advisory Board and Chair of the BBSRC Bioscience Skills and Careers Strategy Panel. In 2009 she was awarded a CBE for services to plant science.
Anneke Lucassen is Professor of Clinical Genetics and Honorary Consultant Clinical Geneticist, University of Southampton Cancer Sciences Division and The Wessex Clinical Genetics Service. Her main clinical and research interests are cancer genetics, cardiogenetics and primary care genetics including social, ethical and legal aspects. She is co-chair of the Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust Clinical Ethics Committee and cofounder of the UK Genethics Club.
Michael Moran is WJM Mackenzie Professor of Government at the University of Manchester. His research interests are in business and politics, in the study of economic regulation and in the regulation of health care systems. He has been a Fellow at the Max Planck Institut fϋr Gesellschaftsforschung, in Cologne, and at the University of Konstanz, the European University Institute and the Australian National University. He is a co-opted member of Council while he chairs the Working Party on emerging biotechnologies.
Professor Alison Murdoch FRCOG
Professor of Reproductive Medicine, Consultant Gynaecologist and Head of the NHS Newcastle Fertility Centre at Life. Alison is currently involved in setting clinical standards, embryo research, stem cell derivation and the associated practical, political and ethical issues.
Reader in Geography at Queen Mary, University of London. Bronwyn is an economic and cultural geographer interested in the way human-environment relations are being recast by technological, economic and regulatory changes. Research topics include the political economy of the life sciences industry, the commodification and patenting of life forms, bioethics, and the creation and use of human tissue banks. She has acted as consultant to the UK government and the UN.
Professor of Sociology and Head of Department of Social Science, Health and Medicine, King’s College London. Initially trained as a biologist and psychologist. His current research is on the social and political implications of the new sciences of the brain.
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Geoff Watts spent five years in research before becoming a science and medical writer and broadcaster. He presented BBC Radio 4’s Medicine Now and, more recently, its science programme Leading Edge. He was a founder member of, and served for six years on, the Human Genetics Commission. Geoff is currently chairing the Council's Working Group on mitochondrial donation.
Jonathan Wolff is Professor of Philosophy at University College London. His research interests include political philosophy, Marx and ethics. He has been a member of two of the Council’s Working Parties, on the ethics of animal research, and the ethics of personalised healthcare.