Members

Marina Banchetti, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters. She earned her doctorate degree in philosophy from the University of Miami and specializes in phenomenology, philosophy of language, philosophy of mind and history and philosophy of science with a current focus on history and philosophy of chemistry. Banchetti is the Florida Department of Education's philosophy discipline coordinator for the statewide course numbering system and was recently appointed as associate editor of Foundations of Chemistry, which is the leading international journal in her specialization. She is a member of the executive committee of the international society for the philosophy of chemistry and has been appointed to the advisory board of the society for phenomenology and philosophy of science. She has been featured in journals, presented papers at numerous conferences and published her first book in July 2020 titled “The Chemical Philosophy of Robert Boyle: Mechanicism, Chymical Atoms and Emergence.”

Justin Bernstein, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters. Bernstein earned his doctorate degree in philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania. He received his master’s in philosophy from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and his bachelor’s in philosophy from Vassar College, New York. Prior to joining FAU, Bernstein co-directed a program in which he and other instructors taught philosophy to students from a variety of public schools in Philadelphia. Bernstein was a Hecht-Levi postdoctoral research fellow at the Berman Institute of Bioethics at Johns Hopkins University, Maryland. His research falls into two broad areas, bioethics/ethics and political philosophy. Bernstein is a passionate teacher and his research has been published in a variety of venues. He received the University of Pennsylvania Penn Prize in excellence in teaching by graduate students, as well as the University of Pennsylvania Penn Center for teaching and learning graduate fellowship in teaching excellence.

Randy D. Blakely, Ph.D., is a professor in the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine and executive director of the Brain Institute. Blakely, a native of Columbus, Ga., earned his bachelor’s in philosophy summa cum laude from Emory University, Georgia, followed by a doctorate degree in neuroscience from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Maryland. He also pursued postdoctoral training at the Yale University Howard Hughes Medical Institute Center for Molecular Neuroscience, Connecticut. His research identified the genes encoding targets of widely used antidepressant medications and psychostimulants, including cocaine and amphetamines. As an independent investigator, Blakely has pursued studies of the genetics, structure, regulation and pathophysiology of synaptic transporters and has appeared in more than 300 research articles and scholarly reviews and gained multiple honors. Blakely sets institute priorities for research, education and outreach, oversees the development and acquisition of research infrastructure, leads recruitment efforts for Brain Institute investigators, and leads efforts to encourage translation of neuroscience discoveries.

Carol Gould, Ph.D., is a professor in the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters. Gould earned her doctorate degree in philosophy from the University of Buffalo, State University of New York, SUNY Buffalo, where she had also received her bachelor’s in philosophy, and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa.

Gould specializes in ancient philosophy, aesthetics, philosophy of psychiatry. She publishes widely in these areas, as well as in Japanese philosophy.

She also co-edited “Art, Ethics and Representations of the Holocaust,” published in 2014.

In addition to her membership in various philosophical organizations, she has served on editorial boards and as peer reviewer for several academic presses and professional journals.

William Hahn, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science. Hahn earned his master’s degree in mathematics and computer Science from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and in 2016 earned his doctorate degree at Florida Atlantic University. Hahn is also the director of the Center for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences, which is dedicated to understanding the principles and mechanisms that underlie complex behavior, and founder and co-director of the Machine Perception and Cognitive Robotics lab. With a background in mathematics and physics, Hahn researches medical imaging, neural networks and deep learning. Hahn was also involved in the creation of Florida Atlantic University’s first and one-of-a-kind-robotic dog pup, Astro.

Jason Hallstrom, Ph.D., is a professor in the College of Engineering and Computer Science and executive director of the Institute for Sensing and Embedded Network Systems Engineering. Hallstrom earned his doctorate degree from Ohio State University. He develops technology that enables visibility into the physical world for purposes of understanding and automation. The applications range from environmental science, to healthcare, to sculpture and includes embedded network systems, internet-scale sensing infrastructure, data analytics and computer education.

Clevis Headley, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters. Headley earned his doctorate and master’s degrees in philosophy from the University of Miami. Previously, he earned a bachelor’s in philosophy from The University of the South, Tennessee, the place he said first inspired his passion for philosophy. Headley specializes in Africana philosophy, critical race theory, epistemology, analytic philosophy, philosophy of language and philosophy of mathematics. He has presented at many conferences, published considerable journal publications and co-edited two books. In addition, he was co-founder of the Caribbean Philosophical Association and presented the keynote address at the 63rd annual conference of the Florida Philosophical Association.

Frederick Hoffman, Ph.D., is a professor in the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science. He earned his doctorate degree from the University of Virginia. Hoffman’s research has been infinite groups and the related area of combinatorics. He worked in coding, cryptology and artificial intelligence expert systems in the 1980’s. Hoffman is a founding faculty of the FAU computer science department, councilman of the Institute of Combinatorics and its Applications and conference chair for 14 of the International Symposia on Artificial Intelligence and Mathematics. Hoffman served as president and governor of the Florida section of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA), and chaired the national Mathematical Association of America (MAA) committee on mini-courses. In 1997, he received the Douglas D. Dankel II Award for service to the Florida Artificial Intelligence (AI) Research Society.

Ashley Kennedy, Ph.D., is an associate professor of Philosophy in the Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College. She earned her bachelor’s in astronomy and physics followed by her doctorate degree in philosophy, both from the University of Virginia. She is passionate about introducing students to philosophical reasoning and teaches symbolic logic, philosophy of medicine, biomedical ethics and theory of knowledge. Kennedy’s two main areas of research are diagnostic reasoning, and global health justice. She has ongoing projects in reproductive health and pharmaceutical ethics. Her recent work has appeared in British Medical Journal, Bioethics, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, Journal of Medicine and Philosophy and Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice.

Kevin Lanning, Ph.D., is a professor of psychology in the Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College. He earned his doctorate degree from the University of California. Lanning teaches psychology of personality, political psychology, behavioral economics and data science. With his experience as an associate professor at Oregon State University, he uses data science to study human nature. Lanning’s work includes three main themes: analysis of language, analysis of social networks and the role of political beliefs in our self-concepts.

Andrea Miller, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters. They earned their doctorate degree from the University of California studying cultural studies with a designated emphasis in science and technology studies. Miller’s research examines how technologies and technoscientific practices emerge through histories of policing and empire and how relationships between technology and sensibilities of security shape racialized life and environments as well as practices of world-making and political insurgencies. Their publications and research have examined racialized practices of pre-emption in U.S. drone warfare and in their current book project, they utilize ethnographic and archival research methods to understand deployments of the ecosystem concept in military-driven nuclear, cybersecurity and urban redevelopment projects.

Ata Sarajedini, Ph.D., is a professor at Charles E. Schmidt College of Science and a Bjorn Lamborn Endowed Chair in Astrophysics. Sarajdini studied at Yale University for undergraduate and graduate school, earning his doctorate in astronomy in 1992. Prior to FAU, he worked at the University of Florida as a professor and associate dean. In January of 2017, Sarajedini arrived at FAU as the dean of the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science. His research interest includes resolved stellar populations, star clusters, galactic structure and evolution, stellar evolution and dwarf galaxies. He’s passionate about connecting with local communities, lifelong learning societies, and high schools to bring a better understanding of science to the general public, including what science is and what it is not. Sarajendini lives by the following motto: “Science is for Everyone”.

Richard Shusterman, Ph.D., is a Dorothy F. Schmidt Eminent Scholar in the Humanities, professor of philosophy and English, and director of the Center for Body, Mind, and Culture. He earned a bachelor's degree in English and philosophy, and later a master’s degree in philosophy, magna cum laude, at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Later, he earned a doctorate degree in philosophy from St. John’s College of the University of Oxford in England. He has held academic appointments in Paris, Berlin, and Hiroshima and was awarded senior research Fulbright and National Endowment for the Humanities. His research covers many topics in the human and social sciences with particular emphasis on questions of philosophy, aesthetics, culture, language, identity, and embodiment.

Gerald Sim, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters and earned his doctorate degree from the University of Iowa. Sim’s research is based in theoretically informed film and media studies, including essays about data platonism in Moneyball, Netflix’s data operations, and its place in media history, CNBC personality Jim Cramer’s Marxist investment advice, Edward Said’s influence on film studies, film music theory and cinema’s transition to digital cinematography. Sim is currently interested in how data epistemologies determine political agency. His work-in-progress examines the relationship between film culture and public imaginings of datafication. It includes studies of how iconic films have come to function within the cultural infrastructures of technological literacy. Sim published “The Subject of Film and Race: Retheorizing Politics, Ideology and Cinema” (Bloomsbury) in 2014 and “Postcolonial Hangups in Southeast Asian Cinema: Poetics of Space, Sound and Stability“ in 2020.

Distinguished Senior Fellow

Natasha Vita-More, Ph.D., an artist, scientist, futurist and former professor of innovation, ethics and communication at the University of Advancing Technology, Arizona. Her experience in the field helps establish principles and practices for assessing humanity's potential futures. Her proficiency as a professor of ethics has produced scholarship toward understanding the challenges societies face.

Vita-More has appeared in more than two dozen films and documentaries concerning the future of humanity, including topics such as artificial intelligence, nano-technology, human enhancement, emerging and speculative technology and evidence-based science. Her key focus area revolves around radical life extension.

She is also co-founder of the transhumanist movement, a social and philosophical movement devoted to promoting the research and development of robust human-enhancement technology. Vita-More continues to speak and write about cultural, philosophical and socio-political issues relative to what it means to be human, and the need for lifelong learning to better understand the current environment and our place in it.

Cody Turner, ABD, is a doctoral student at the University of Connecticut, studying philosophical issues in artificial intelligence, including its relation to embodied cognition, intellectual virtue and human flourishing. Turner is the creator of a podcast network called Shelter from the Storm, which features a technology and philosophy podcast series, Tent Talks. He has also published chapters in “The Oxford Handbook of the Ethics of AI” and “The Age of Artificial Intelligence.”

Robert Prentner, Ph.D., is a scientist and philosopher who bridges consciousness research in biology, neuroscience and philosophy, with the latest thinking in artificial intelligence, particularly relative to deep learning and artificial life. Prentner earned a doctoral degree in physical chemistry in 2013 and another in philosophy in 2017 from ETH Zürich, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich. He is part of the center’s new initiative on the future of intelligence.