Ben Hurlbut is a Ph.D. candidate in the History of Science Department at Harvard University. He is primarily interested in the history of the life sciences, biotechnology, and bioethics. His dissertation work examines the history of the debates surrounding human embryo research in the United States from the mid-1970s to the present. He examines the debates from multiple perspectives, including the history of embryo research activities, fertility industry standards and regulation, the ethical bodies- both public and private—convened to discuss human embryo research, the emergence of professional bioethics as a reservoir of moral expertise, and the public political deliberations surrounding human embryo research on both the state and federal level. Ben holds an AB in Classics from Stanford University. He has served as a teaching fellow for courses in the history of the mind sciences, the history of evolutionary biology, in science and religion and in bioethics.
