People
Director
Rachell Powell
Rachell Powell has been Director of the BU Center for Philosophy and History of Science since 2023. Specializing in the philosophy of biological and biomedical science, she has held fellowships at the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, the National Humanities Center, the American Council of Learned Societies, the Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research, the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center, the Oxford Center for Neuroethics, the Berman Institute for Bioethics, and the Berlin School of Mind and Brain. Her recent monographs include Contingency and Convergence: Toward a Cosmic Biology of Body and Mind (MIT Press) and The Evolution of Moral Progress: A Biocultural Theory (OUP, with Allen Buchanan). She received her PhD in Philosophy and M.S. in Evolutionary Biology from Duke University (2009) and a Juris Doctor from New York University School of Law (2002). Before returning to philosophy, Rachell worked as an attorney for the global law firm Skadden, Arps LLP, where she practiced complex pharmaceutical liability litigation (work she loved but doesn’t miss!). For more information on her research and teaching please see her Philosophy Department website. Office: STH 506, 745 Commonwealth Ave. Email: powell@bu.edu
Directors Emeriti
Alisa Bokulich
Director (2010 – 2023)
Alfred Tauber
Director (1993 – 2010)
Robert S. Cohen
Director (1960 – 1993)
Administrative Assistant
Vanessa Hanger
Local Advisory Committee
International Advisory Board
Edward Jones-Imhotep,
Director, Institute for the History & Philosophy of Science & Technology
University of Toronto (Canada)
Alan Love,
Director, Minnesota Center for Philosophy of Science
University of Minnesota (U.S.)
Bryan Roberts,
Director, Centre for Philosophy of Natural & Social Science
The London School of Economics and Political Science (UK)
Artist-in-Residence
Visiting Researchers
Visting Faculty:
Affiliate Members
Our Affiliate Members consists of over 40 scholars in the greater Boston area who work across a broad range of topics in the history and philosophy of science, technology, and medicine. Our affiliates include faculty members at Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Tufts University, Boston College, Northeastern University, and more. Please visit our Affiliates page for more information.
