Professor Jennifer Chandler’s term as the Bertram Loeb Chair in Organ and Tissue Donation has been renewed for a second five-year term, beginning on July 1, 2021. An expert in the study of the law and ethics of emerging biomedical technology, Professor Chandler is known nationally and internationally for her ground-breaking work in the areas of organ and tissue donation law, ethics and policy, the legal and ethical implications of the brain sciences, and mental health law.
Since the beginning of her first term as chairholder, Professor Chandler has provided academic leadership in multiple different ways at the international, national, and local levels. For example, she founded and convened the first meeting of the Pan-American Neuro-modulation Ethics Group in Buenos Aires (2018). She is co-lead of the donation focused theme in the Canadian Donation Transplant Research Program, and is a member of the CIHR Advisory Board to the Institute for Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction where she helps to advise on strategic funding decisions, and provides perspective on the social, ethical and legal issues arising in these fields. She is Chair of the Ethics Committee for the Canadian Society of Transplantation, and co-lead of the Legal/Ethics Working Group in a major initiative by Canadian Blood Services to produce Canadian guidelines on the definition and determination of death. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, she has also been called to serve on the Public Health Ethics Working Group advising Dr. Vera Etches, the Ottawa Medical Officer of Health, on questions of public health ethics.
Professor Chandler is recognized in her field as a trailblazer as evidenced by the requests she receives from around the world to teach, speak, and provide editorial advice. She serves as Associate Editor of the Neuroethics journal, a major and prestigious international publication focusing on neuroethics. She has twice been invited to speak at the annual conference of the International Neuroethics Society, before the Institute of Medicine, National Academies in Washington, and the Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle Épiniere in Paris, amongst many others.
She is the coordinator of the international research project – Hybrid Minds – bringing together leading researchers in neuroethics, law, and medicine to look at the incorporation of artificial intelligence within neurotechnologies such as brain-computer interfaces and neurostimulation devices.
As interim Director of the University of Ottawa Centre for Health Law, Policy and Ethics, Professor Chandler launched COVID-19 Conversations, bringing leading policy-makers into conversation with the public. Her Mind-Brain-Law discussion group has moved online during the pandemic, and is drawing scholars and students from around the world to discussions of cutting-edge issues related to evolving neuroscience and technology.
On June 17-18, 2021, Professor Chandler will convene the uOttawa Centre for Health Law, Policy and Ethics’ annual conference on organ donation and transplantation, which will be hosted virtually this year. Click here for details on the conference, including how to register.
The Bertram Loeb Chair at the University of Ottawa is the first academic chair in the world dedicated to research in the field of organ and tissue donation. Initiated in 2006 by its benefactor Bertram Loeb and the Bertram Loeb Organ and Tissue Donation Institute, the Chair promotes and supports an innovative multi-disciplinary approach to the study of the issues surrounding organ donation and transplantation.
Congratulations to Professor Chandler!