Vardit Ravitsky

Prof. Vardit Ravitsky is a Full Professor of Bioethics at the University of Montreal’s School of Public Health, Department of Social and Preventive Medicine. She also holds a Senior Lecturer position at Harvard Medical School. Her academic roles include directing the Ethics and Health Axis at the Centre de recherche en éthique (CRE) and serving as Vice-President of the International Association of Bioethics (IAB).

Education: Completed studies in France, the U.S., and Israel; postdoctoral training at the NIH (USA); academic roles at the University of Pennsylvania and policy advisory roles with Genome Canada and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).

Research Interests: Focuses on ethical dimensions of genomics, reproductive technologies, and pandemic governance. Key areas include non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT), embryo research, vaccine equity, and AI ethics in healthcare. She emphasizes public engagement through media and social platforms despite facing aggressive online opposition.

Awards & Grants: Trudeau Foundation Fellow (2020), elected Hastings Center President (2023), recipient of over 20M CAD in research funding including the McConnell Chair in Reproductive Health Research. Lead researcher on projects like PEGASUS (prenatal genomics), Voice as a Biomarker, and Ethical AI lifecycle frameworks.

Labs/Teams: Co-directs the Centre de recherche en éthique (CRE), collaborates with the Réseau Québécois en Reproduction (RQR), and leads interdisciplinary initiatives on AI ethics and global health policy. Active in developing bioethics curricula for public health and research ethics training programs.