Professor (tenure)
Associate Faculty, School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia
Associate Faculty, School of Journalism, University of British Columbia
Associate Faculty, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Washington
(604) 822-0746
jilles@mail.ubc.ca
Biography & Research Interest:
Dr. Judy Illes, trailblazing neuroethicist, is Professor of Neurology at the University of British Columbia (UBC), Distinguished University Scholar, UBC Distinguished Scholar in Neuroethics, and Director of Neuroethics Canada. She holds appointments in UBC’s School of Population and Public Health, School of Journalism, Department of Philosophy, and in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Washington, in Seattle. She is a pioneer of the field of neuroethics through which she has made groundbreaking contributions to cross-cultural ethical, legal, social and policy challenges at the intersection of the brain sciences and biomedical ethics.
Dr. Illes received her PhD in Hearing and Speech Sciences and in Neuropsychology from Stanford University in 1987, and turned to ethics in 2000, 25 years ago. She was among the first to use high density EEG recordings and pattern recognition to understand language processing in neurodegenerative disease, and was part of the revolution that functional MRI introduced. Together with a vision for ethics for neuroscience led from within the neurosciences, Dr. Illes has not only placed neuroethics on the world map of, but has tirelessly trained the generation that leads it today, and already those who will lead it tomorrow.
With her expertise in both neurosciences and ethics, Dr. Illes has served in major leadership positions. She was the academic lead of the working group convened by Health Canada on neurotechnology ethics, in response to OECD’s principles established in 2018 which she helped to draft, Canada’s delegate to UNESCO today on this subject, and she has served as an expert advisor for the World Health Organization and Amnesty International.
Dr. Illes has published 14 edited volumes, including three handbooks in neuroethics and as Editor in Chief of the series of volumes for Developments in Neuroethics and Bioethics. Volumes have been devoted to ethics in pain across the lifespan, global mental health, do-it-yourself neurotechnology, neurodevelopment, transnational law and ethics for neuroscience, neuroarchitecture, neuro-AI, and crosscultural considerations for brain and mind, including those of Indigenous People. She has led major research projects and hundreds of publications on invasive and noninvasive technologies, fixed and portable imaging systems such as MRI, biologics, pharmaceuticals, and devices, open science and intellectual property protections. In 2023, she released an award-winning film on neurotechnology ethics and decision-making for children with drug resistant epilepsy. She has received numerous awards and recognitions for her empirical work and her mentoring alike.
Dr. Illes places a particular emphasis on issues of ethics in neuroscience with attention to biomedicine, innovations that seek to alleviate the burden of psychiatric and neurologic disease, including spinal cord injury, both expected and unexpected incidental findings in research and clinical care, holism, human rights and health disparities. With this open and broad perspective, she capably led the International Brain Initiative from 2022 to 2025 and today, as its Immediate Past Chair, she remains dedicated to global neuroscience that is inclusive and politically free. Dr. Illes is tapped frequently by the international ethics, neuroscience, and engineering communities, by the media for public comment, and by governments around the world for her wisdom and guidance.
Dr. Illes was awarded the Order of Canada, the country’s highest recognition of its citizens, in 2017, and promoted to Officer of the Order of Canada in 2025.