Judy Illes, Professor in the Division of Neurology and Canada Research Chair in Neuroethics, became the third president of the International Neuroethics Society, with her two-year term officially starting January 28.
Dr. Illes, a co-founder of the society, is an internationally recognized author, lecturer, and mentor whose research focuses on a wide range of ethical, social, legal, and policy challenges at the intersection of the neurosciences and biomedical ethics.
Among her roles, she has been the International Advisor and an Internal Advisory Board member to the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), Institute on Neuroscience Mental Health and Addiction; a member of the IoM’s Forum on Neuroscience and Neurologic Disorders; an active member of and advisor to multidisciplinary neuroscience research networks worldwide; and an elected fellow of some of the most prestigious health and life science scholarly societies in Canada and the U.S.
Dr. Illes launched AJoB-Neuroscience, the official journal of the International Neuroethics Societym in 2006. In the same year, she and Dennis Choi worked to introduce the social impact of neuroscience as a theme of the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting program. She successfully made the Society’s commitment to international activity explicit by bringing the then Canadian-initiated International Neuroethics Network into the fold and spearheading the name change to the International Neuroethics Society.