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Professor Peter J O’Donnell, a man with curly dark hair wearing a blue checked shirt and bright red tie, stands indoors before a glass-fronted cupboard filled with glassware and decorative items.

Professor Peter J O’Donnell

Tutor, Fellow

Professor Peter J O’Donnell

Tutor, Fellow
Affiliated Lecturer at the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, Director of Studies in Mathematics, Tutor, Financial Tutor

Peter O’Donnell is an Affiliated Lecturer in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, a member of the Relativity and Gravitation research group and a Fellow of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications. His current research interests are:

Lanczos potential theory. The Weyl tensor can be generated differentially by a three index tensor: the Lanczos tensor, which was derived from a Lagrangian that was initially constructed to analyse the self-dual part of the Riemann tensor. An ongoing study is being carried out to investigate the mathematical and physical properties of the Lanczos tensor. In generating the Weyl tensor the Lanczos tensor acts as a potential – analogous to the electric tensor in electromagnetic theory.

Twistor theory applied to Lanczos potential theory. The purpose of this research is to utilise the techniques of twistor theory in order to carry out a qualitative and quantitative analysis of the Lanczos potential, which appears to have some connection with local twistor transport.

Amongst his publications, Peter is the author of two books:

Introduction to 2-Spinors in General Relativity (World Scientific, 2003)

Essential Dynamics & Relativity (CRC Press, 2014).

He is a Tutor and Director of Studies at St. Edmund’s for Mathematics.

Prof Hill Gaston Headshot

Professor Hill Gaston

Emeritus Fellow

Professor Hill Gaston

Emeritus Fellow

My research interests have been in the field of immunology as applied to an understanding of autoimmune and inflammatory diseases which I also managed as a clinical rheumatologist. My principal interest was in T lymphocyte responses to a variety of pathogens associated with some forms of arthritis.

Prof. Gaston read medicine at Oxford, trained in general medicine in London and Bristol, and started research in Bristol, as a CRC Fellow, on T cell responses to Epstein-Barr virus. He continued postdoctoral training at Stanford as an MRC travelling fellow, working on total lymph node irradiation as a treatment for RA, and began studies on synovial biopsies and cloning of lesional T lymphocytes. In 1985 he was invited to Birmingham by Paul Bacon, where he became a Wellcome Trust Senior Clinical Fellow and honorary consultant, continuing work on synovial T cell clones, particularly those recognizing bacterial antigens in reactive arthritis. He moved to Cambridge in 1995 as foundation professor of rheumatology, and has continued interests in immunological mechanisms in rheumatic disease, particularly spondyloarthritis and the role of HLA-B27, and interactions between infection and the immune system. Recent research in his lab has investigated the IL-23-IL-17 axis in inflammatory arthritis, and the transcriptional control of IL-23 secretion, having recently reported the influence of intracellular stress responses on IL-23 production. Such responses can be initiated by protein mis-folding (as seen with HLA-B27) or intracellular infection (e.g. by chlamydia).

He established a spondyloarthritis clinic, and was involved in clinical research as clinical director of the West Anglia comprehensive local research network. cHe haired the Arthritis Research UK’s clinical studies group in spondyloarthritis.

Prof Gaston is married to a G.P, has two grown-up children and a grandson; interests include music, science and faith issues (through Cambridge Faraday Institute), reading and travel.

Professor Robert White, FRS, an older man with grey hair, glasses, and a moustache, smiles warmly in a high-visibility safety vest and red scarf. A dark, rocky landscape provides the backdrop.

Professor Robert (Bob) White, FRS

Emeritus Fellow

Professor Robert (Bob) White, FRS

Emeritus Fellow
Bob White is Emeritus Professor of Geophysics at Cambridge University and a trustee and Emeritus Director of The Faraday Institute for Science and Religion

Bob White is Emeritus Professor of Geophysics at Cambridge University and a trustee and Emeritus Director of The Faraday Institute for Science and Religion, originally founded in St Edmund's College, Cambridge in 2006. He studied Geology as an undergraduate at Emmanuel College, Cambridge and stayed to do research for a PhD in marine geophysics, which he completed in 1977. Since then he has been mostly in Cambridge, though with research interests around the world. He was elected a Fellow of St. Edmund’s College in 1988. In 1989 he was elected Professor of Geophysics, in 1994 a Fellow of the Royal Society, in 2016 a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, and in 2018 was awarded a Gold Medal of The Royal Astronomical Society for his research.  His research interests include a wide variety of topics to do with how the earth works, with particular emphasis in recent years on the way in which molten rock is generated beneath the earth's major rift zones, and then stored in magma chambers in the crust before being erupted from volcanoes. Much of his current fieldwork is in Iceland.

He lectures and writes widely on science and Christian faith and believes that they are two ways of looking at the same world which give a richer and deeper view of it than either on their own. He is President of the charity Christians in Science, and Vice-President of the John Ray Initiative, a Christian environmental charity.

Professor Michael Herrtage

Professor Michael Herrtage

Life Fellow

Professor Michael Herrtage

Life Fellow

My clinical interests include all aspects of small animal medicine and diagnostic imaging. I was the former Vice-Master of St Edmund’s College and the former Dean of the Veterinary School. 

Mike Herrtage graduated in Veterinary Medicine from the Liverpool University in 1975. He is currently Emeritus Professor of Small Animal Medicine in the Department of Veterinary Medicine. He became a Fellow of St. Edmund’s College in 1990. He oversaw the small animal medicine and diagnostic imaging services at the Queen’s Veterinary School Hospital until his retirement and still works part-time in the Hospital. His clinical interests include all aspects of small animal medicine and diagnostic imaging, but he has a particular interest in endocrine and metabolic disorders. He has spoken at many international meetings and published over 200 articles in refereed journals. He was awarded the British Small Animal Veterinary Association (B.S.A.V.A.) Woodrow Award in 1986 for outstanding contributions in the field of small animal veterinary medicine and the B.S.A.V.A. Blaine Award for outstanding contributions to the advancement of small animal medicine in 2000. In 2014, he was awarded the World Small Animal Veterinary Association International Award for Scientific Achievement for outstanding contributions by a veterinarian, who has had a significant impact on the advancement of knowledge concerning the cause, detection, cure and/or control of disorders of companion animals.

He received the B.S.A.V.A. Bourglet Award for really outstanding international contributions to the fields of small animal practice and science in 2019, the British Veterinary Association’s Dalrymple-Champneys Cup and Medal for outstanding services to the advancement of veterinary medicine and science in 2021 and the Queen’s Medal, the highest honour the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons can bestow on an individual in recognition of a highly distinguished career with sustained and outstanding achievements, in 2022.He has been President of the British Veterinary Radiology Association, President of the British Small Animal Veterinary Association, President of the European Society of Veterinary Internal Medicine and the first President of the European Board of Veterinary Specialisation, which was instrumental in promoting and co-ordinating the development of veterinary specialisation in Europe. He is a Diplomate of both the European College of Veterinary Internal Medicine and of the European College of Veterinary Diagnostic Imaging and is a Past President of the European College of Veterinary Internal Medicine.

Norfolk Building and Chapel

Professor Bruce Alberts CBE

Honorary Fellow

Professor Bruce Alberts CBE

Honorary Fellow

Former President, US National Academy of Sciences

A middle-aged man with glasses, short grey hair, and a neutral expression is wearing a dark suit, white shirt, and red tie against a plain grey background—resembling Professor Leszek Borysiewicz FRS.

Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz FRS FRCP FMedSci

Honorary Fellow

Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz FRS FRCP FMedSci

Honorary Fellow

Former Vice-Chancellor, University of Cambridge

Norfolk Building and Chapel

Professor Sir Martin Evans FRS

Honorary Fellow

Professor Sir Martin Evans FRS

Honorary Fellow
CBE FRS professor Brian Heap, an older man with grey hair and glasses, wearing a dark suit, white shirt, and patterned tie, poses against a softly blurred blue and grey background.

Professor Sir Brian Heap CBE FRS

Honorary Fellow

Professor Sir Brian Heap CBE FRS

Honorary Fellow
Former Master of St Edmund's College

Sir Brian Heap has doctorates from the Universities of Nottingham and Cambridge in animal physiology, and has published on endocrine physiology, biotechnology, sustainable consumption and production, and science advice for policy makers. He was University Demonstrator at the University of Cambridge, staff member of the Institute of Animal Physiology, Babraham, Cambridge, Director of the Institute of Animal Physiology and Genetics Research (Cambridge and Edinburgh), and Director of Research at the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, Swindon. He was President of the Institute of Biology, UK Representative on the European Science Foundation, Strasbourg, UK Representative on the NATO Science Committee, member of the Scientific Advisory Panel for Emergency Responses (SAPER), Chief Scientist’s Office, Cabinet Office, and member of the Advisory Board of the Templeton Foundation. Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1989, he became a member of Council, and Foreign Secretary and Vice-President from 1996 to 2001. In 1994 he was awarded CBE and in 2001 knighted for contributions to international science.

Sir Brian was President of the European Academies Science Advisory Council, Honorary Professor at the University of Nottingham, and is Chief Scientific Advisor to the Malaysian Commonwealth Study Centre and the Cambridge Malaysian Education and Development Trust, and is a Trustee of the Cambridge China Development Trust. He was Master of St Edmund’s College, Cambridge, and is Honorary Fellow at St Edmund’s College, Cambridge and formerly at Green Templeton College, Oxford. He was Editor of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Series B, Chair of the Advisory Panel on Sustainable Consumption and Production at the Department of the Environment Food and Rural Affairs, and Specialist Advisor to the Parliamentary Select Committee on Putting Science and Engineering at the Heart of Government Policy.

With the UK’s Nuffield Council on Bioethics, the Department of Health’s Expert Group on Cloning, the EU President’s Advisory Group on Biotechnology, and the UK-China Forum he has been engaged in issues of population growth, environment and biotechnology. He is Senior Adviser of the Smart Villages Initiative in Africa, Asia and Latin America, International Adviser, Global Food Security, University of Cambridge, and previously project co-leader of Biosciences for Farming in Africa. He was scientific consultant for Merck, Sharp and Dohme, Johnson and Johnson, and Ligand Pharmaceuticals in the USA, and Principal Scientific Adviser for ZyGEM Co Ltd, New Zealand.

Norfolk Building and Chapel

Professor Christopher Rapley CBE

Honorary Fellow

Professor Christopher Rapley CBE

Honorary Fellow

Former Director of the Science Museum, London

Norfolk Building and Chapel

Professor Amartya Sen FBA

Honorary Fellow

Professor Amartya Sen FBA

Honorary Fellow

Former Master of Trinity College Cambridge

mccrary

Professor Lorraine McCrary

Research Associate

Professor Lorraine McCrary

Research Associate

Lorraine Krall McCrary is Associate Professor of political science at Wabash College, a liberal arts school in Indiana, where she is also Department Chair. After serving as a visiting scholar at St Edmund’s, Lorraine has been appointed as a Research Associate to continue her work on disability and community at the VHI.

McCrary is a political theorist whose research focuses on communities of care that include people with disabilities. She is drafting a monograph provisionally entitled, Care for Citizens: A New Political Theory of Cognitive Disability and Community. She is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Humanities grant, which supported work on earlier phases of this project. She also writes about topics in politics and literature, as well as the relationship between the family and politics.

Lorraine earned her Ph.D. from Georgetown University where she wrote about Alexis de Tocqueville’s and John Stuart Mill’s conceptions of women as members of families and as political actors. Her work has been supported by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Political Science Association, among other institutions. An advocate of community-engaged learning, Lorraine’s classes bring students outside the university to learn with people who have been excluded from colleges and universities, including people with cognitive disabilities and incarcerated people.

prof_p_carozza

Professor Paolo Carozza

Senior Research Associate

Professor Paolo Carozza

Senior Research Associate

Paolo Carozza is Professor of Law and Concurrent Professor of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame (Indiana, USA), where he has been on the faculty since 1996. His expertise is in the areas of comparative constitutional law, human rights, law and development, and international law. His more recent books and edited volumes include The Practice of Human Development and Dignity (2020), Dialogues on Italian Constitutional Justice (2020), Italian Constitutional Justice in Global Context (2016), Comparative Legal Traditions (2014), and Regional Protection of Human Rights (2013). His numerous articles, published in four languages, have focused primarily on foundational principles of human rights law, such as human dignity, democracy, and subsidiarity.

From 2012-2022 he served as the Director of the Kellogg Institute for International Studies at the University of Notre Dame, an interdisciplinary institute focusing primarily on the themes of democracy and human development, where he was also the founder and principal investigator of the Notre Dame Constitutionalism and Rule of Law Lab.

Carozza currently serves as a member of the Oversight Board, an independent expert body created by Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, to render binding decisions and policy recommendations regarding difficult content moderation questions on Meta’s platforms. From 2019-2023 he was the United States member of the European Commission for Democracy through Law (the Venice Commission), the Council of Europe’s expert advisory body on issues of constitutionalism, the rule of law, democracy, and fundamental rights. In 2019-2020 he was a member of the U.S. State Department’s independent, nonpartisan, advisory Commission on Unalienable Rights. From 2006 to 2010 Carozza was a member of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the principal international body responsible for the promotion and protection of human rights in the Western Hemisphere, and served as its President in 2008-09. He was appointed by Pope Francis in 2016 to be a member of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences.

Professor Mark Engelman, wearing glasses, a navy suit, and a patterned tie, sits outdoors at a table, smiling at the camera. There are plants, parked cars, and buildings in the background.

Professor Mark Engelman

VHI Affiliate Member

Professor Mark Engelman

VHI Affiliate Member

My research focuses on all aspects of Intellectual Property.

Qualifying in Pharmacology at Kings College London, called to the Bar in 1989, St. Edmunds College Camb, Research Associate, Intellectual Prop. 2015 - 2025, Notre Dame University – Prof. of IP, 2018 – 2020-advocacy and IP for New York State JDs, Hon. Soc. of Gray’s Inn Advocacy Trainer – 2010-current, Visiting Professor – Trade Mark for Practitioners Course - Brunel University & Oxford University. Appointed Bencher (Master) of Hon Soc. of Gray’s Inn – 1999- current ; Chair-elect – Bar Association for Commerce Finance and Industry; Elected Member of the Bar Council (twice); Member of the IP Commission Panel of the Federation Barreaux D’Europe (The European Bar).

Directorships: Autumnpaper Ltd – Alexander McQueen’s company – 2005-2006; The Globe Theatre – Development Council – twice-present.

Published Engelman's IP Updates - Bloomsbury; published over 40 IP papers; notable cases: Intel Corp v CPM (UK) Ltd cited daily in courts & tribunals ojn Trade Mark Dilution across the UK & all Member States of the EU.

Personal Website

 

Professor Jonathan Warner, a middle-aged man with short grey hair, glasses, and a moustache, is wearing a cream jumper over a blue checked shirt, standing in front of a plain light-coloured background.

Professor Jonathan Warner

VHI Affiliate Member

Professor Jonathan Warner

VHI Affiliate Member

Jonathan Warner holds a B.A. in PPE from Oxford University, a PhD in welfare economics from the University of Wales, and a Post-Graduate Certificate in Education from Birmingham University. After completing his degrees, Jonathan taught at Maidstone Grammar School (England) for four years, moving on to North Cyprus in 1988 to teach at Eastern Mediterranean University. After ten years (with a year off at Nicholas Copernicus University, in Torun, Poland), he moved to Central Asia and taught for a year at the American University in Kyrgyzstan, before moving to Dordt College, in the scenic corn country of northwestern Iowa, U.S.A. After nine years there, he joined Quest University Canada, an innovative new teaching university.

He has also taught at the Russian-American Christian University in Moscow, and in the Creation Care Study Program in Belize, and latterly at LCC International University in Klaipeda, Lithuania. In 2018 he retired from Quest, allowing him to begin concentrating on new research areas.

Prof Paul Wiethman Headshot

Professor Paul Weithman

Senior Research Associate

Professor Paul Weithman

Senior Research Associate

My research focuses on contemporary political philosophy in the analytic tradition. I have also worked on moral philosophy, the philosophy of education and medieval political theory.

Paul Weithman is the Glynn Family Honors Professor of Philosophy at Notre Dame, the university from which he received his B.A. in 1981. He earned his Ph.D. at Harvard, where he wrote his dissertation under John Rawls and Judith Shklar. He joined the Notre Dame faculty in 1991. Professor Weithman chaired the Philosophy Department between 2001 and 2007 and currently directs the interdisciplinary minor in Philosophy, Politics and Economics. He serves on the editorial boards of the JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS ETHICS, THE REVIEW OF POLITICS and POLITICS, PHILOSOPHY AND ECONOMICS. He is a member of the international advisory board of PHILOSOPHY AND PUBLIC ISSUES and is an honorary member of the Brazilian Society for Legal Philosophy. Professor Weithman has won several awards for his teaching. His book RELIGION AND THE OBLIGATIONS OF CITIZENSHIP (Cambridge, 2002), won the annual book award from the North American Society for Social Philosophy. His WHY POLITICAL LIBERALISM (Oxford, 2010) won the David and Elaine Spitz Prize for the best book on liberal democratic theory published in its year. In 2015, Cambridge University Press published a collection of his papers under the title RAWLS, POLITICAL LIBERALISM AND REASONABLE FAITH.

Academic Profile

Awards & Recognitions 

  • National Humanities Center Residential Fellowship, 2000
  • Annual Book Award from the North American Society for Social Philosophy, 2003
  • David and Elaine K. Spitz Prize for the best work of liberal and democratic theory published in 2010
  • NEH Grant to host a conference, "A Theory of Justice at Fifty", 2021
Sarah Irving-Stonebraker

Sarah Irving-Stonebraker

Associate Professor of History at Australian Catholic University

Sarah Irving-Stonebraker

Associate Professor of History at Australian Catholic University

Sarah Irving-Stonebraker is Associate Professor of History at Australian Catholic University.

She is an intellectual historian of early modern Britain with a particular interest in the intersections of theology, natural philosophy, and historical writing. She was awarded her BA with First Class Honours and the University Medal from the University of Sydney, and her PhD in History from the University of Cambridge, where she was a Commonwealth Scholar at King’s College. She then held a Junior Research Fellowship in History at Wolfson College, Oxford University. Her first book, Natural Science and the Origins of the British Empire (London: 2008) won the Royal Society of Literature and Jerwood Foundation Award for Non-fiction. Her most recent book is Priests of History: Stewarding the Past in an Ahistoric Age (Zondervan/HarperCollins, 2024), which was awarded The Gospel Coalition’s 2024 Book of the Year (Culture Category) and shortlisted for Australian Christian Book of the Year.

Lord Alec Broers FRS, an older man with grey hair, wears a dark pinstripe suit, white shirt, and red patterned tie as he poses against a plain grey background.

Lord Alec Broers FRS

Honorary Fellow

Lord Alec Broers FRS

Honorary Fellow

Former Vice-Chancellor of University of Cambridge, Lord Broers worked in the research and development laboratories of IBM in the United States for 19 years before returning to Cambridge in 1984 to become Professor of Electrical Engineering (1984–96) and Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge (1985–90). He is a pioneer of nanotechnology.

Dr Phung Dao, wearing glasses, a maroon shirt, and a grey checkered blazer, smiles whilst standing in front of a bookcase filled with books and framed pictures.

Dr Phung Dao

Tutor and Fellow

Dr Phung Dao

Tutor and Fellow

Dr Phung Dao is Associate Professor in Second Language Education. His research focuses on the intersection of second language acquisition (SLA), educational technology, and language education.

Phung Dao is Associate Professor in Second Language Education at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, where he teaches MPhil/MEd courses in Research in Second Language Education (RSLE) and supervises PhD students. Before joining the University of Cambridge, Phung was a senior Lecturer in TESOL and Applied Linguistics at Manchester Metropolitan University (2018-2022), teaching undergraduate/postgraduate courses and supervising PhD students in TESOL/Applied Linguistics. He also taught undergraduate/postgraduate courses in Applied Linguistics at University of Queensland (Australia), Concordia University (Canada) and An Giang University (Vietnam). His research interests focus on instructed second language acquisition (ISLA), technology for language teaching and learning, peer interaction, learner engagement, Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT), L2 pedagogy, and L2 teacher education. His publications appear in international peer-reviewed Applied Linguistic journals such as Modern Language Journal, TESOL Quarterly, Studies in Second Language Acquisition, Language Teaching, Computer Assisted Language Learning, Language Teaching Research, Applied Linguistics Review, TESOL Journal, System, Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching, Language Learning Journal, IRAL and among others.

His current research projects, funded by British Council and IELTS IDP Australia, investigate online English language teaching in Vietnamese public schools, IELTS impacts on stakeholders, and young learners’ engagement in L2 learning tasks in face-to-face and online classes.

Academic Profile 

Publications

  • Dao, P. (2024). Learner Engagement in Online Second Language Classrooms. Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Iwashita, N., Dao, P., & Nguyen, M. (2025). Understanding Interaction in the Second Language Classroom Context. Multilingual Matters.
  • Dao, P., M. Nguyen, PT. Duong, V. Tran-Thanh. (2021) Learners’ Engagement in L2 Computer-Mediated Interaction: Chat Mode, Interlocutor Familiarity, and Text Quality. Modern Language Journal. https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.12737
  • Dao, P., Bui, T. & Nguyen, XNCM (2024). Public primary school teachers’ perceptions and assessment of young learners’ engagement. Language Teaching Research. https://doi.org/10.1177/13621688241253546

 

Dr Gianmarco Contino, a man with short dark hair and a light blue shirt, smiles at the camera in a home office, with a computer screen displaying scientific images in the blurred background.

Dr Gianmarco Contino

Bye-Fellow

Dr Gianmarco Contino

Bye-Fellow

Gianmarco Contino is an Associate Professor of Cancer Genomic Medicine and Group Leader in the Department of Cancer and Genetic Sciences at the University of Birmingham Medical School. He also serves as an Upper GI Consultant at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, part of the University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Trust, and as the Translational Lead for Precision Health Technologies at the University of Birmingham. Additionally, he is the Director of the MSc in Clinical Oncology at the University of Birmingham and the Network Chair of the EORTC Pathobiology Group. Gianmarco is a Research Fellow at the Von Hügel Institute, University of Cambridge, where he explores topics in the epistemology of medicine and the implications of artificial intelligence.

Previously, Gianmarco was a Clinical Lecturer at the University of Cambridge and Addenbrooke’s Hospital. His training in surgical oncology and translational science included positions at the European Institute of Oncology (Milan), Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital (Boston), the University of Illinois at Chicago, and Imperial College London. He consulted for AI-driven biotech companies, including Cambridge Cancer Genomics (now part of Nvidia) and EpistemicAI.

Gianmarco's research focuses on functional genomics of aneuploidy and upper gastrointestinal cancers. As part of the International Cancer Genome Consortium, he worked on identifying structural variations driving oesophageal adenocarcinoma. His current research leverages functional genomics approaches to understand the molecular mechanisms behind chromosomal instability in oesophageal adenocarcinoma, with active studies involving Genomics England and UK Biobank.

Clinically, Gianmarco specializes in advanced endoscopy and endoscopic treatment for upper gastrointestinal cancers. He has published extensively on the genomics and molecular therapeutics of pancreatic and oesophageal adenocarcinoma, with contributions appearing in leading journals such as Science and Nature.

Gianmarco is passionate about training the next generation of clinician-scientists and volunteers with organisations that support students from disadvantaged backgrounds to enter STEM fields.

Dr Thana de Campos-Rudinsky, with long wavy brown hair and glasses, smiles at the camera. She is wearing a white top and a chunky statement necklace. The background is blurred with indistinct text.

Dr Thana de Campos-Rudinsky

VHI Affiliate Member

Dr Thana de Campos-Rudinsky

VHI Affiliate Member

I research how the moral values of love and justice can reshape institutions to foster mutual care. I’m currently working with hospitals in Chile on a scorecard that fosters spaces of encounter and enables caregivers—like mothers and health professionals—in giving and receiving loving care.

Thana C. de Campos-Rudinski is an Associate Professor at the School of Government and the Institute of Applied Ethics at the Pontifical Catholic University in Chile. She has a DPhil in Law from the University of Oxford.

Her research and teaching examine how laws and public policies impact the way we think and live the most fundamental aspects of life: love, family, friendship, the interdependence among people and countries. Her work has analysed the problems of global poverty, medical suffering, communicable diseases and pandemics, the loneliness epidemic, and grief. Her discussions draw on relational theories of justice (Aquinas and Finnis in particular), virtue ethics, and feminist ethics of care.

In The Global Health Crisis: Ethical Responsibilities (CUP, 2017) she discusses the duties of justice that we have (or do not have), as both individuals and nations, to aid those vulnerable people in remote areas afflicted by certain grave illnesses for which there is no adequate or accessible medical treatment. Her forthcoming book The Rule of Love: The Power of Presence for Reforming Health Institutions and Global Health Governance (OUP) investigates how love – together with justice – helps us revisit how we should structure our healthcare institutions at the local, national, and global levels, to foster an organizational culture of encounter, presence, and accompaniment with those suffer – without being inefficient or financially reckless. Current research projects include 'Lonely Mothers, Loving Institutions and Institutional Homemaking', which examines how the application of the philosophical concepts of love and homemaking could help us reimagine contemporary institutions, laws, and public policies such as those contemplating universal day-care and personalized perinatology (maternal-foetal medicine), in how they may impact mothers and as a consequence father, children, families, communities, and the common good more broadly.

Thana was a fellow at Princeton’s Institute for International and Regional Studies (2021) and is the co-director of the research program Dignity and Equity in Women’s Health of the UNESCO Chair in Bioethics and Human Rights.

Academic Profile

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