Our People
Our People
- CDT in Designing Responsible NLP
- CTMF Staff Team
- Design Informatics
- Divinity
- Edinburgh College of Art
- Engineering
- Global Academy of Agriculture and Food Security
- Informatics
- Law School
- Mathematics
- MSc Data and AI Ethics Programme Staff
- Philosophy
- Science Technology and Innovation Studies
- Social and Political Science
- Sociology
- UKRI Centre for Doctoral Training in NLP
- Usher Institute
Dr Adam Lopez is a Reader in the School of Informatics. His research for the past two decades has focused on language technology, spanning a wide range of related scientific, mathematical, and engineering problems. He is now most interested in problems related to fairness, accountability, and transparency of language technology.
Aditya’s PhD research project is A Data Ethics Framework for Agriculture, co-supervised in the Roslin Institute’s Global Academies by experts in international law and mathematical modelling as related to food security and the global food system.
Alexander’s PhD research project is 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.
Alice’s research looks at speech technology and human-computer interaction. Her project aims to explore the experiences, attitudes, and concerns of people who have speech difficulties in new contexts.
Amanda Horzyk is a PhD candidate in Responsible NLP. Her research bridges legal and technical perspectives in developing leading solutions to complex issues presented by Artificial Intelligence, the Internet and Virtual Reality.
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.
Ayça is a PhD candidate at the University of Edinburgh. She conducts interdisciplinary research at the intersection of law and human-computer interaction and focuses on fairness and child-centred AI in education.
Dr Benedetta Catanzariti is a British Academy Post-Doctoral Fellow in Science, Technology and Innovation Studies at the University of Edinburgh. Her work explores the social, ethical, and political dimensions of data-driven technologies, with a focus on machine learning and its related data practices. She is also a core member of the Edinburgh-based network AI Ethics & Society.
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.
Burkhard is Professor of Computational Legal Theory, with a particular interest in the use of technology in the justice system, legal responses to technological developments, and the changing vision of the just society under the rule of law.
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.
In her research, Caterina weaves together philosophical dimensions of digital technologies and the analysis of creative practices to investigate the impact that emerging technological innovations have on the creation, consumption, and ownership of content.
Charlotte's work will focus on AI ethics in creative spaces, such as the interdisciplinary discussions about computational creativity as a tool for enhancing AI ethics, generative models, and human-algorithm collaboration.
Claire's current research focuses on building AI data-driven tools able to effectively and ethically improve legal decision making in the context of refugee law. She is exploring the links between machine learning and other disciplines such as law and human rights processes, cognitive sciences, human-AI cooperation and ethics.
Claudia’s research is at the intersection of neurotechnology and law. They aim to provide a comprehensive framework to counteract neurohacking and safeguard brain data.
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.
Des Higham is Professor of Numerical Analysis in the School of Mathematics at the University of Edinburgh with interests that include the study of vulnerabilities in Artificial Intelligence systems.
Eilidh’s research explores the ethical dimensions relating to the adoption of companion robots to support ageing-in-place for older adults experiencing feelings of loneliness and social isolation.
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.
Elisa’s work explores how we can empathise with the lived experience of ageing populations, designing digital devices and services that respond to their hopes and fears.
Dr Emily Postan is a Chancellor's Fellow in Bioethics in Edinburgh Law School. Her research focuses on the ethical implications of the ways that encounters with health data and health technologies affect our identities and relationships to others.
Emma joined the CTMF in August 2024 and is covering the role of Centre Manager for the next 12 months whilst Gina is on maternity leave. Emma started working in higher education 20 years ago and has held roles across student recruitment, communications, widening participation and admissions within several Scottish HEIs.
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.
Dr Gavin Sullivan is a Reader in International Human Rights Law at Edinburgh Law School and Principal Investigator on the UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship project, Infra-Legalities: Global Security Infrastructures, Artificial Intelligence and International Law.
Gemma is a writer and researcher focused on corporate futurism and the cultural economy of deep tech. She is a PhD researcher at Edinburgh University and a Research Associate at Glasgow University. She is author of 'Smoke & Mirrors: How Hype Obscures the Future and How to See Past It'.
Giles is a Teaching Fellow in the Department of Philosophy. His courses include Ethics of AI (MSc). He explores normativity, agency, and the ethical dimensions of AI in his research.
Currently on maternity leave
The Centre's Manager since 2022, Dr Gina Helfrich leads on operations and strategy. Gina also serves as Deputy Chair of the university’s AI and Data Ethics Advisory Board. Previously, she held several programme management and operations roles in the non-profit technology sector.