A CTMF Visiting PhD Researcher from Sept - Oct 2026, Robin Hillenbrink is a PhD candidate in Philosophy at the University of Twente, the Netherlands. Her research focuses on socially disruptive technologies, conceptual disruption and change, and technomoral change.

Building on her dual background in philosophy and data science, Stella is applying causal modelling to compare blood transfusion strategies in critical care, while conducting critical ethical analysis of the ways that causal methods are “sold” in academic literature.

Dr Victoria Wang is a PhD student in philosophy of science. Their research focusses on the value-ladenness of scientific practices, especially in epidemiology and public health as they aim to understand and alleviate health inequalities.

Dr Emily Sullivan serves as a Co-Director of the Centre for Technomoral Futures. She is a senior lecturer at the University of Edinburgh’s Department of Philosophy. Emily joined the Futures Institute in 2025 following academic appointments in the Netherlands at Utrecht University and Eindhoven University of Technology.

September 2025 - June 2026

Prior to his appointment as a Postdoctoral Associate in Social and Ethical Responsibilities of Computing at the MIT Department of Linguistics and Philosophy, Ben Schwartz was a Teaching Fellow in the Department of Philosophy.

Alexander’s PhD research project was on the Role of Measurement in Machine Learning and Ethical Implications of the Philosophy of Measurement, co-supervised in the School of Informatics and the School of Philosophy, Psychology, and Language Sciences.

An EFI Visiting Fellow from April - June 2025, Dr Audrey Borowski is a Research Fellow on the “Desirable Digitalization” project between the Universities of Bonn and Cambridge.

Dr Enrico Galvagni is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in the Department of Philosophy. His research focuses on ethics and its development, with a particular interest in moral concepts and how they enable us to deal with new and disruptive problems.

Andrew is a third year PhD student with the Usher Institute, researching the implementation and evaluation practices of robotic surgery systems. Andrew’s research draws on his roots in moral theory, and its application to contemporary medical high technology, as well as practice theory empowered by an ethnographic methodology.

Andrew’s academic interests focus on the intersection between ethics, psychology, and technology and how these fields come together to influence technological innovation and the development of moral character.

January 2022 - June 2024

Prior to her appointment as Assistant Lecturer at Carnegie Mellon University, Dr Atoosa Kasirzadeh was Chancellors Fellow and Research Lead at the CTMF. She had previously held research posts with Australian National University’s Humanising Machine Intelligence project and with DeepMind.

Bhargavi’s PhD research project is A Responsibility Framework for Governing Trustworthy Autonomous Systems, co-supervised in the School of Informatics and School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences.

Carolina studies the transhumanist movement - which seeks to transform biology with nanotechnologies, biotechnologies and AI - and its critiques; by resorting to computer scientists, continental philosophers and theologians, her research aims to mediate this battle and develop an interdisciplinary technology ethics.  

Dr Cristina Richie joined the Centre in August 2023. She is Lecturer and Cohort Lead for the MSc in Data and Artificial Intelligence Ethics at the University of Edinburgh’s Futures Institute. Her research is driven by a global vision of clean, just, and ethical health care and technology through the development of strategies and policies.

2020 - 2023

Denisea’s PhD research looked at the social and cultural attitudes regarding women that inform current sex robot designs, as well as their broader ethical implications.

Nov 2022 - Feb 2023

Elena is a Lecturer in philosophy at the University of Woolongong, Australia. She works on emotion and emotional dispositions, drawing especially on dynamical systems theory, life history theory, and predictive processing models of mind.

Dr Fabio Tollon is a philosopher of technology with interests in the ethics of AI, moral responsibility, and free will. He is a postdoctoral researcher as part of the BRAID (Bridging Responsible AI Divides) Programme.

While at the University of Edinburgh Giles was a Teaching Fellow in the Department of Philosophy. His courses included Ethics of AI (MSc). He explores normativity, agency, and the ethical dimensions of AI in his research.

Harry’s research focuses on the foundation of moral skill, norms, and responsibility – highlighting what we risk as AI companies and corporate structures increasingly insulate decision-makers and developers from the social feedback loops that develop moral expertise.

Jacqueline’s PhD research explores how to make Natural Language Processing tools and technologies safer, fairer and more equitable for speakers of marginalised languages, drawing on her interdisciplinary background in linguistics, human rights and computer science.