Bert Gordijn is Professor and Director of the Institute of Ethics at Dublin City University in Ireland. He has studied Philosophy and History in Utrecht, Strasbourg and Freiburg in Breisgau. In 1995 he was awarded a doctorate in Philosophy from the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, followed by a doctorate in Bioethics from the Radboud University Nijmegen in 2003. Bert has been a Visiting Professor at Lancaster University (UK), Georgetown University (USA), the National University of Singapore and the Fondation Brocher (Switzerland). He has served on Advisory Panels and Expert Committees of the European Chemical Industry Council, the European Patent Organisation, the Irish Department of Health as well as UNESCO. Bert is Editor-in-Chief of two book series: "The International Library of Ethics, Law and Technology" and "Advances in Global Bioethics" as well as a peer reviewed journal: "Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy", all published by Springer. He is Secretary of the European Society for Philosophy of Medicine and Healthcare as well as President-Elect of the International Association of Education in Ethics.

A native New Yorker, Dr. James Giordano is a neuroscientist and neuroethicist whose research focuses upon the use of advanced neurotechnologies to explore the neurobiology of pain and other neuropsychiatric spectrum disorders, neuro-cognitive mechanisms of moral decision-making, and the neuroethical issues arising from the use of neuroscience and neurotechnology in research, medicine, public life, global health, and national security and defense.

He is Chief of the Neuroethics Studies Program in the Edmund Pellegrino Center for Clinical Bioethics, and a Professor on the faculties of the Department of Neurology; Inter-disciplinary Program in Neuroscience, and Graduate Liberal Studies Program at Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA. He currently serves on the Neuroethics, Legal and Social Issues Advisory Panel of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) working on neuroethical issues fostered by studies and use of brain-machine interfacing technologies developed under the federal BRAIN Initiative. As well, he is William H. and Ruth Crane Schaefer Distinguished Visiting Professor of Neuroethics at Gallaudet University, Washington, DC, USA; and Clark Faculty Fellow of Neurosciences and Ethics at the Human Science Center of the Ludwig-Maximilians Universität, Munich, Germany, where he previously was JW Fulbright Foundation Visiting Professor.