Brain Project Consultants

Dr. Adrian Carter is an NHMRC Career Development and Senior Research Fellow and Head, Neuroethics and Public Policy Group at the School of Psychological Sciences and Monash Institute of Cognitive and Clinical Neurosciences, Monash University. He is also Director, Neuroethics Program, Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function and Chair, Australian Brain Alliance Neuroethics Subcommittee, Australian Academy of Science. His research examines the impact of neuroscience on our understanding and treatment of addiction and other compulsive behaviours, including: agency, identity, moral responsibility, the use of coercion and the capacity for voluntary control of addictive or compulsive behaviours; and the use of emerging technologies such as brain stimulation and neuroimaging, to treat addiction. He received the Australasian Professional Society of Alcohol and Other Drugs “Early Career Award for Excellence in Research and Science” (2012) and the Australian National Drug and Alcohol Award for Excellence in Research (2010). He has over 120 publications, including the book ‘Addiction Neuroethics: The Promises and Perils of Addiction Neuroscience’ (Cambridge University Press, 2012). Dr Carter has been an advisor to the World Health Organization, the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, the Australian Ministerial Council on Drugs Strategy and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. He is also Deputy Chair of the Australian Academy of Science Early and Mid Career Research Forum Executive.

Dr. Illes is Professor of Neurology and Canada Research Chair in Neuroethics at UBC. She is Director of Neuroethics Canada, and faculty in the Centre for Brain Health and at the Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute. She received her PhD in Hearing and Speech Sciences, and in Neuropsychology at Stanford University, and became one of the pioneers of the field of neuroethics formally established in early 2000.

Dr. Illes’ research, teaching and outreach initiatives are devoted to ethical, legal, social and policy challenges at the intersection of the brain sciences and biomedical ethics. She has made groundbreaking contributions to neuroethical thinking for neuroscience discovery and clinical translation specifically in the areas of neuromodulation, neuropsychiatry, neurodevelopment, and neurodegeneration, and more broadly to entrepreneurship and the commercialization of health care.

In addition to her primary appointment in the Faculty of Medicine at UBC, Dr. Illes also holds associate appointments in Population and Public Health and in Journalism at UBC, and in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Washington in Seattle, WA, USA. She is Vice Chair of the Standing Committee on Ethics of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), and Vice Chair of the CIHR’s Internal Advisory Board of the Institute on Neuroscience, Mental Health and Addiction.  

Dr. Illes received the Order of Canada, the country’s highest civilian award, in December 2017. She was elected to the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences in 2011, Royal Society of Canada in 2012, and to the American Association for the Advancement of Science (Division of Neuroscience) in 2013. She is immediate past President of the International Neuroethics Society, founded in 2006. She is also an elected member of the International Women’s Forum. Her latest books, a series on Developments in Neuroethics and Bioethics, feature pain, global mental health, and do-it-yourself brain devices.

Dr. Illes writes frequently for the Vancouver Sun and Canada’s The Conversation Canada, and hosts community outreach about challenging ethical problems involving biomedicine and the brain throughout BC and across the country.

Jialin Zheng is Dean of the Tongji University School of Medicine, where he is a Professor of Neuroscience and Regenerative Medicine. He is simultaneously a Professor of Pharmacology and Experimental Neuroscience at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC). Dr. Zheng’s research focuses on the understanding and treatment of neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s Disease. Ultimately it is the mission of his lab to develop drugs that will inhibit neurotoxin production and enhance neuronal repair in the brain. Dr. Zheng has been at the fore of UNMC’s collaborative efforts in China. He is the Director of UNMC’s Asia Pacific Rim Development Program and has worked to create more than 10 partnerships in China, including the formation of the first joint U.S./Chinese M.D./Ph.D. program. Dr. Zheng received his M.D. from Xuzhou Medical College in China and served as a visiting scholar at the State University of New York at Buffalo prior to joining UNMC.