Bloomberg Distinguished Professorship of Philosophy and Bioethics

Berman Institute of Bioethics, Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts and Sciences

Established in 2013 by Michael R. Bloomberg

MICHAEL R. BLOOMBERG is a Johns Hopkins alumnus, founder of Bloomberg LP and Bloomberg Philanthropies, World Health Organization Global Ambassador for Noncommunicable Diseases, UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Climate Action, and former New York City mayor.

He is an entrepreneur and philanthropist who served as mayor of New York City from 2002-2013 after leading the company he started in 1981 for 20 years. Since leaving City Hall, he has resumed leadership of Bloomberg LP.

Bloomberg was elected mayor less than two months after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Under his leadership, the city rebounded faster and stronger than expected on issues ranging from education to health to economic development.

A lifelong philanthropist, Bloomberg founded Bloomberg Philanthropies, which focuses on five main areas: public health, education, the environment, the arts, and government innovation. He also leads a number of bi-partisan coalitions on urgent issues, including climate change, illegal guns, immigration reform, and infrastructure investment. In January 2013, he made the $350 million gift that established the Bloomberg Distinguished Professorships and provided undergraduate financial aid.

Bloomberg graduated from Johns Hopkins University and Harvard Business School.

Held by Hanna Pickard

HANNA PICKARD, Ph.D., is a professor of philosophy and bioethics. Her research centers on how society responds to maladaptive behaviors like crime or drug use. She is a leading applied philosopher in the fields of moral psychology and the philosophy of psychiatry. Through her applied approach to research, Pickard explores a range of areas, including mental health, addiction, clinical ethics, the self, and criminal law and policy. Currently, she leads a research project titled Responsibility Without Blame, which explores the counterproductive ways society responds to maladaptive behaviors such as crime or addiction. She is using her Responsibility Without Blame framework to advocate for a radical new approach to criminal justice. With Nicola Lacey, a professor of law at LSE, Pickard has authored a series of papers calling for the criminal justice system to establish two routes for delivering justice—one centered on justice for victims and one centered on responsibility and rehabilitation for offenders.

Pickard joined Johns Hopkins from the University of Birmingham in the U.K. in 2019, where she was Chair in Philosophy of Psychology, and from Princeton University, where she served as a visiting research scholar in cognitive science for two years.