We are pleased to announce that Wendell Wallach has accepted an appointment as Fellow of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies for 2011.

A consultant, ethicist, and scholar at Yale University’s Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics, Wendell Wallach chairs the Center’s working research group on Technology and Ethics. He also is a member of research groups on Animal Ethics, End of Life Issues, Neuroethics, and PTSD. Wendell co-authored (with Colin Allen) Moral Machines: Teaching Robots Right From Wrong, which maps the new field of enquiry variously called machine ethics, machine morality, computational morality, or friendly AI.

Wendell also serves on the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of Saint Francis Hospital in Hartford, CT and is an associate editor for the journal TopiCS in Cognitive Science. Formerly, he was founder and president of two computer consulting companies, Farpoint Solutions and Omnia Consulting Inc. Among the clients served by his companies were PepsiCo International, United Aircraft, and the State of Connecticut.

He is presently writing a book on the societal, ethical, and public policy challenges arising from technologies that enhance human faculties by altering the mind/body. Another book in progress explores the ways in which cognitive science, new technologies, and introspective practices are altering our understanding of human decision making and ethics. In his spare time, Wendell’s hobby/avocation is building stained glass windows.