Adina Roskies

Adina Roskies is a Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Cognitive Science Program at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), with affiliations in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences and the Cognitive Science program. She chairs the Cognitive Science graduate emphasis and previously served as a faculty member at Dartmouth College (2004–2023) and held leadership roles in neuroscience publishing and research.

Her education includes dual Ph.D.s from UC San Diego (Neuroscience & Cognitive Science, 1995) and MIT (Philosophy, 2004), an M.S.L. from Yale Law School (2014), and earlier degrees from Yale University and UC San Diego. Roskies’ research bridges philosophy, neuroscience, and ethics, focusing on agency, free will, moral responsibility, and neuroethics. She co-authored A Primer on Criminal Law and Neuroscience with Stephen Morse, addressing intersections of neuroscience with legal systems.

Roskies has received prestigious awards such as the Stanton Prize (Society for Philosophy and Psychology) and Neuroethics Prize (Italian Society of Neuroethics), and holds grants from the NIH BRAIN Initiative and the Templeton Foundation. Her work explores how neuroscience informs ethical, legal, and philosophical debates about mind, consciousness, and decision-making.

Her research also engages with neuroimaging ethics, privacy concerns around brain data, and the societal implications of neurotechnology. She contributes to interdisciplinary initiatives like the MacArthur Law and Neuroscience Project and has advised on post-trial obligations in neural implant studies.