Giulia De Togni

Giulia De Togni is a Chancellor's Fellow (equivalent to Assistant Professor) at the University of Edinburgh's Usher Institute within the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine. She is based at the Centre for Biomedicine, Self and Society and holds additional prestigious affiliations as a Turing Fellow at the Alan Turing Institute, a Visiting Researcher at the Edinburgh Centre for Robotics and Bayes Centre, and a Senior Research Affiliate at the Edinburgh Futures Institute.

Her educational background includes:

• PhD in Social Anthropology, UCL Anthropology Department (2019)
• MSc in Social Anthropology, University of Oxford (2015)
• MPhil in Japanese Studies, Ca' Foscari University of Venice (2014)
• Advanced Japanese Language Course, Ritsumeikan University, Japan (2013)
• MSt in Japanese Studies, INALCO Paris (2012)
• BA in Languages, Legal Institutions and Economics of East Asia, Ca' Foscari University of Venice (2011)

Giulia's research focuses on Responsible Research and Innovation for AI and Robotics in the Health and Care sectors, drawing on Science and Technology Studies and Social Anthropology. Her work employs cross-cultural comparative ethnographic methods to understand how different stakeholders can inform the design and innovation practices of health and care technologies. She has conducted extensive fieldwork in robotics labs in the UK and Japan, examining the ethical considerations and lived embodied experiences associated with these technologies across different cultural contexts.

Her research portfolio demonstrates a consistent focus on the social, ethical, and cultural dimensions of AI and robotics in healthcare. Through her publications and projects, she has explored how care robotics are developed, implemented, and experienced across different cultural settings, with particular attention to Japanese contexts. Her work bridges technical innovation with social science perspectives, emphasizing the importance of stakeholder engagement and responsible innovation practices.

Giulia has received several prestigious awards and fellowships:

• Chancellor's Fellowship at the University of Edinburgh (2024)
• Wellcome Trust Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Humanities and Social Science (2022-2024)
• Turing Fellowship at the Alan Turing Institute (2024-2026)
• FHEA (Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy) (2022)
• Advance HE Aurora Leadership Development Programme (2025)

Giulia actively supervises students and contributes to teaching across multiple programs. She co-supervises three PhD students based at ACRC, Design Informatics, and ISSTI, serves as a Dissertation Supervisor for MPH Master of Public Health students, and teaches courses including Bioethics Law and Society, and the MA Ethics of Robotics and Autonomous Systems. Her external collaborations span internationally, including partnerships with institutions in Japan, South Korea, France, and Italy.

She is actively involved in several research centers and networks, including the Institute for the Study of Science, Technology and Innovation (ISSTI) and the Institute for Technoscience and Society (ITS) at York University. Her international collaborations include work with Japan's Science and Technology Agency (JST), AIST, National Robotarium, and Bristol Robotics Laboratory.