Associate Professor Benjamin Capps Ph.D

Benjamin Capps is an Associate Professor in Clinical Ethics at Dalhousie University, Department of Bioethics, Faculty of Medicine.  Prior to relocating to Canada in 2014, he was an Assistant Professor at the National University of Singapore, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine (2008-2014); and before that, he completed a Welcome Trust Fellowship (Ph.D.) and Welcome Trust Postdoctoral Fellowship both at the University of Bristol (UK) (2000-2008).  He has qualifications in genetics (BSc), law (MA), and philosophy (Ph.D. in Bioethics); and has taught in medical schools for 22 years at all levels.  He is Chair of the Human Genome Organisation (HUGO) Committee on Ethics, Law and Society.  

Ben has published three books: One Health Environmentalism (2024; Cambridge University Press) Addiction Neurobiology: Ethical and Social Implications (with others; 2009; Office for Official Publications of the European Communities); and a co-edited collection called Contested Cells: Global Perspectives on the Stem Cell Debate (2010; Imperial College Press). 

In 2024, he was awarded a grant to lead a workshop at the Brocher Foundation in Geneva, on The Ecological Genome Project and the Promises of Ecogenomics for Society.  He was an advisor for the Group of Chief Scientific Advisors’ Scientific Opinion on ‘Cross-sectoral evidence-based governance for One Health in the EU’ (European Commission, DG Research & Innovation; Final Report: One Health Governance in the European Union; November 2024), and Science Adviser to the UK Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST); Public Health and Climate Change: A One Health Approach Research Briefing (19 July 2023). He served on the Neuroethics Working Group of the Bioethics Advisory Committee (Singapore; 2011-2014), and Pro-Tem National Oversight Committee for Human-Animal Combinations in Stem Cell Research (Ministry of Health, Singapore; 2011-2012). 

Ben’s work investigates issues relating to the nexus between applied ethics, normative theory, and legal doctrine. His overall aim is to impart substantive theoretical guidance (or ethical grounding and critique) that has professional and wider social impact.