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William Hurlbut

William Hurlbut is a physician and Adjunct Professor of Neurobiology at the Stanford Medical School. After receiving his undergraduate and medical training at Stanford University, he completed postdoctoral studies in theology and medical ethics, studying with Robert Hamerton-Kelly, the Dean of the Chapel at Stanford, and subsequently with the Rev. Louis Bouyer of the Institut Catholique de Paris.

His primary areas of interest involve the ethical issues associated with advancing biomedical technology, the biological basis of moral awareness, and studies in the integration of theology and philosophy of biology. Hurlbut is the author of numerous publications on science and ethics including the co-edited volume Altruism and Altruistic Love: Science, Philosophy, and Religion in Dialogue; Science, Religion and Human Spirit in the Oxford Handbook of Science and Religion. He is also a co-chair of two interdisciplinary faculty projects at Stanford University, “Becoming Human: The Evolutionary Origins of Spiritual, Religious, and Moral Awareness,” and “Brain, Mind and Emergence.”

In addition to teaching at Stanford, he has also worked with NASA on projects in astrobiology and was a member of the Chemical and Biological Warfare Working group at the Center for International Security and Cooperation. From 2002-2009, Hurlbut served on the President’s Council on Bioethics. He is the author of “Altered Nuclear Transfer” (2005, Stem Cell Reviews) a proposed technological solution to the moral controversy over embryonic stem cell research. He has testified to the National Academy of Sciences Embryonic Stem Cell Research Guidelines Committee and the Senate Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education. In addition, he has made presentations to UNESCO, the Pan American Health Organization, and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars as well as at major medical centers and universities around the world.

Hurlbut serves as a trustee of the Templeton World Charities Foundation, on the steering committee of the Templeton Religion Trust, and on the board of advisors of the John Templeton Foundation. He is also a Senior Fellow at The Trinity Forum.

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William Hurlbut