Stephen R. Latham

Stephen R. Latham, JD, PhD, is Director of Yale's Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics and Senior Research Scientist at Yale University's Institution for Social and Policy Studies. He holds courtesy appointments in Religious Studies, Environmental Studies, History of Science and Medicine, and is a Senior Lecturer at Yale Law School, School of the Environment, and Program in Ethics, Politics & Economics. As Director of the Center, he oversees a broad bioethics program that includes biomedical ethics, environmental ethics, animal ethics, and ethics of new technologies.

His educational background includes a Ph.D. in Jurisprudence and Social Policy from UC Berkeley (1996), a J.D. from Harvard Law School (1985), and an A.B. in Social Studies from Harvard College (1982). Latham has taught numerous courses at Yale including Bioethics and Law, International and Comparative Bioethics, and Philosophical Environmental Ethics.

Latham's research spans multiple domains of bioethics with particular emphasis on the legal regulation of novel medical technologies, human and animal research, philosophical argumentation in bioethics, and environmental ethics. His work frequently intersects law, medicine, and ethics, examining topics from brain resuscitation research to pandemic resource allocation. He has published over 150 articles in prestigious journals including Nature, JAMA, New England Journal of Medicine, and numerous bioethics publications.

His recent publications reveal a strong focus on contemporary bioethical challenges including pandemic ethics, AI applications in research ethics, postmortem research, resource allocation during crises, and reproductive ethics. These works demonstrate his ability to bridge theoretical bioethics with practical healthcare challenges, often combining legal analysis with ethical reasoning.

• Fellow of the Hastings Center (2021)
• Presidential Citation Award, American Society for Bioethics and Humanities (2022, 2021, 2011)
• Distinguished Service Award, American Society for Bioethics and Humanities (2010)
• Healthcare Compliance Certification Board award (2005)
• Commencement Hooding Professor by Quinnipiac Law Students (2003)

Latham has advised numerous graduate students and served on multiple university committees including as Chair of Yale's Human Subjects Committee (social/behavioral IRB) and Co-Chair of the Embryonic Stem Cell Research Oversight Committee. He has secured significant research funding from NIH, AHRQ, and other agencies for projects ranging from acute kidney injury care to brain cell atlas development. His work with the Center includes hosting a renowned summer bioethics program that attracts students from around the world and organizing lecture series that bring prominent bioethicists to Yale.

The Yale Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics, which Latham directs, maintains a research alliance with the Hastings Center and serves as a hub for bioethics scholarship across Yale's campus. The Center's work encompasses health policy, environmental ethics, animal ethics, and the ethical implications of emerging technologies, reflecting Latham's broad scholarly interests and institutional vision.