James J. Hughes Ph.D.

The Short Version

James "J." Hughes Ph.D. serves as the Director of Institutional Research and Planning at Trinity College in Hartford Connecticut where he also teaches health policy, medical ethics and research methods in the Public Policy Program. He also serves as the Executive Director of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies and produces the weekly public affairs talk show Changesurfer Radio.  Dr. Hughes is the author of Citizen Cyborg: Why Democratic Societies Must Respond to the Redesigned Human of the Future. He is a Fellow of the World Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a member of the Neuroethics Society, the Association of Futurist Leaders, the American Society of Bioethics and Humanities and the Working Group on Ethics and Technology at Yale University. Dr. Hughes speaks on medical ethics, health care policy and future studies worldwide, and appears often on radio and television.  Dr. Hughes lives in eastern Connecticut with his wife, the artist Monica Bock, and their two children.

The Long Version

Dr. Hughes' ambition in his early twenties was to become a scholar of Buddhist political thought. After a stint as a Buddhist monk and exegete of Buddhist scriptures, however, this ambition was thwarted by a lack of talent in Sanskrit, Pali and Japanese. 

At the University of Chicago, Dr. Hughes worked and taught at the U of C's MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics while completing his doctorate in medical sociology. he also served as a consultant to the University of Chicago Hospital and the Midwest Business Group on Health, and founder-editor of the international newsletter Doctor-Patient Studies.

Dr. J. is currently Director of Institutional Research and Planning at Trinity College in Hartford, where he also teaches Happiness, Health Policy, Drug Policy, Infectious Disease Policy, BioEthics, and Research Methods in Trinity's Graduate Public Policy Studies program.

In 1998 Dr. Hughes started Changesurfer Radio, a weekly half hour public affairs program on the politics of future technologies.  In 2005 he co-founded the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies with the Oxford philosopher Nick Bostrom, and has served the IEET since then as Executive Director.

Dr. Hughes is a Fellow of the World Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a member of the Neuroethics Society, the American Society of Bioethics and Humanities, the Association of Futurist Leaders, and the Working Group on Ethics and Technology at Yale University. Dr. Hughes speaks on medical ethics, health care policy and future studies worldwide, and appears often radio and television.