Françoise Baylis
Halifax, Nova Scotia
Position: Distinguished Research Professor Emerita
Organization: Dalhousie University
Françoise Baylis is President-Elect of the Royal Society of Canada (2025-2028). As well, currently she is a member of the Governing Board of the International Science Council (2021-2025) and Vice-Chair of its Committee for Freedom and Responsibility in Science. She was a member of the WHO Expert Advisory Committee on Developing Global Standards for Governance and Oversight of Human Genome Editing and the WHO Working Group on Principles of the Global Guidance Framework for the Responsible Use of the Life Sciences. In 2022, Baylis was awarded the Killam Prize for the Humanities, and in 2023, she received the Canada Council for the Arts Molson Prize in Humanities — Canada’s most distinguished awards for humanities scholars. As well, in 2023 she was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal. Baylis is a member of the Order of Canada and the Order of Nova Scotia, as well as an elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and the International Science Council.
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My Work
What I do:
My work in bioethics, at the intersection of policy and practice, challenges us to think broadly and deeply about the direction of health, science and biotechnology. It aims to move the limits of mainstream bioethics and develop more effective ways to understand and tackle public policy challenges. A public intellectual for the modern age, Baylis brings her ethical sensibility, theory and common sense, to a wide range of public issues. Her current research focuses on human genome modification, assisted human reproduction, research involving women and the responsible governance and stewardship of science.
Ask me about:
My expertise is in applied ethics (with a specialization in bioethics). Recently my work has focused on the ethics of human genome modification. I am the author of “Altered Inheritance: CRISPR and the Ethics of Human Genome Editing” and a co-author of three reports issued by the WHO Expert Advisory Committee on Developing Global Standards for Governance and Oversight of Human Genome Editing. I was a member of the planning committees for the First and the Third International Summit on Human Genome Editing.
Why me:
I am an excellent and thought-provoking speaker skilled at addressing a range of audiences from academic peers to the general public. I am an independent thinker who does not shy away from controversial topics of perspectives.
About Me
Sector: Academia (Post Secondary)
English proficiency: Read, Write, Speak
French proficiency: Read, Write, Speak
Title: Professor
Pronouns: She/Her/Hers
Gender: Female
Demographic: African/Black, European / White