Biography

Katherine Bassil is a neuroscientist and assistant professor in neuroethics at the Julius Center for Health Sciences, UMC Utrecht. She is the ethics co-lead of the Wellness working group of the international IEEE Neuroethics Framework initiative. She is the founder of "Neuroethics Today", and educative platform aimed at raising awareness on the ethical, legal, and societal implications of neuroscience research and neurotechnology.

Katherine is passionate about bridging the fields of neuroscience and neuroethics by enlightening scientists about the importance of neuroethics, and about the ethical and responsible communication of research to various audiences including the general public, especially concerning the ethical challenges associated with emerging neuroscience studies and technologie. She ultimately hopes that her efforts will lead to the democratization of neuroethics literacy globally.

Research

Bassil received her PhD at Maastricht University on the biology of stress mechanisms in stem-cell derived neurons and the ethical challenges associated with advanced neuroscience models. Her work touches upon modeling stress mechanisms in vitro, the investigation of biomarkers for psychiatric disorders, the bioethics of stem cell models, the need for ethics communication, and the neuroethics of biomarkers in the workplace. She is currently focusing on investigating scientists' perspectives on the scientific and social value of neuroscience models to better understand the perspectives, role, and responsibilities that researchers carry in relation to model selection. She will also be focusing on setting up guidelines for the post-trial explantation of neural devices in the group of Dr. Karin Jongsma. She believes that her research and outreach activities are interconnected and benefit from one another.

Katherine is also a longtime member of the International Neuroethics Society (INS) and active member of their Program Committee and Outreach and Engagement Committee since 2020.