Hi, I'm Ozan Gurcan, Research Associate in Bioethics at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

I am a moral philosopher with a background in biomedical sciences and qualitative research methods. In conjunction with my bioethics role at St. Jude, I am Adjunct Professor at the School of Epidemiology and Public Health at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa. I do bioethics research at the intersection of science, society and policy.  Here is a youtube video about my work.

Between 2023-2025, I was a postdoctoral scholar at the Linde Center for Science, Society and Policy at Caltech.  There I developed an ELSI tool for policy that can be used to think through the ethical dimensions of emerging genomic technologies, including how they may worsen or create new forms of genetic discrimination. This tool is based on a theory of a morality of inclusion, and pays close attention to effective ways to communicate ethical insights to policymakers.  

More about my research interests and projects can be found on my research page. You can also read some of my blog posts at the LCSSP Tech Policy Blog. Here is one on genetically engineered micro-organisms.

Public Health Ethics

Prior to St. Jude and Caltech, I was Policy Analyst in the Science Excellence division of the Public Health Agency of Canada. I was responsible for the research, analysis, and development of policies, reports, and guidelines to advance the management of science and research activities within the Agency during the pandemic.  I worked on topics such as:

• Emergency preparedness; non-pharmaceutical interventions; macro & micro-allocation; 

• High consequence infectious diseases (HCID); surveillance

• Informed consent; information sharing and privacy; vaccine hesitancy

• Trust between communities & public health officials; scientific integrity; publication ethics

• Effective communication of science to the public; non-stigmatizing risk communication

My research skills in the domain of public policy are:

• Qualitative methods: interviews, focus groups, public and stakeholder engagement

• Ethical, Legal and Societal Implications research (ELSI) 

• Policy analysis

• Regulatory gap analysis

You can find me on LinkedIn here

Get in touch at: ogurcan@caltech.edu