Dr.Michael Selgelid earned a BS in Biomedical Engineering from Duke University; and a PhD in Philosophy from the University of California, San Diego, under the supervision of Philip Kitcher. His research primarily focuses on public health ethics (especially regarding infectious disease) and ethical issues associated with biotechnology.
Dr.Selgelid was previously Professor of Bioethics in the Monash Bioethics Centre and Director of the World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre for Bioethics at Monash University (Melbourne, Australia), where he additionally held an appointment as Adjunct Professor in the School of Public Health and Preventative Medicine. He also served as Director of the Monash Bioethics Centre from 2012 to 2019. Michael held earlier academic appointments at The Australian National University (in Canberra), The University of Sydney, and the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg (South Africa).
Dr.Selgelid is a member of the Scientific Committee of the Brocher Foundation in Geneva/Switzerland and a member of the General Ethical Issues Sub-committee of the Alfred Hospital Ethics Committee (in Melbourne). He was previously a member of the Board of Directors of the International Association of Bioethics, the Ethics Review Board of Médecins Sans Frontières, and the Ethics Advisory Group of the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease. He was Chair of the Global Network of WHO Collaborating Centres for Bioethics from 2016 to 2018.
He co-authored Ethical and Philosophical Consideration of the Dual-Use Dilemma in the Biological Sciences (Springer 2008) and Human Challenge Studies in Endemic Settings: Ethical and Regulatory Issues (Springer, 2021); and he co-edited On The Dual Uses of Science and Ethics: Principles, Practices, and Prospects (ANU E Press 2013), Ethics and Security Aspects of Infectious Disease Control: Interdisciplinary Perspectives (Ashgate 2012), Emergency Ethics (Ashgate 2012), Infectious Disease Ethics (Springer 2011), Health Rights (Ashgate 2010), Ethics and Infectious Disease (Blackwell, 2006), Ethics and Drug Resistance: Collective Responsibility for Global Public Health (Springer, 2021).
Dr.Selgelid edits a book series in Public Health Ethics Analysis for Springer and is Co-Editor of Monash Bioethics Review.
Among numerous other engagements with WHO Dr.Selgelid served as an Advisor to the International Health Regulations (IHR) Emergency Committee regarding Ebola (2014-2015, West Africa); and he was a Member of the IHR Emergency Committee on Zika Virus and Observed Increase in Neurological Disorders and Neonatal Malformations and the IHR Emergency Committee for Ebola virus Disease (2018, Democratic Republic of Congo).
In 2015 Dr.Selgelid was commissioned by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) to produce a White Paper on ethical issues associated with gain-of-function research. The resulting article published in Science and Engineering Ethics has the #1 Altmetric score for any paper published in that journal.
In 2020 he lead a WHO Working Group developing Key Criteria for the Ethical Acceptability of COVID-19 Human Challenge Studies published by WHO and in the journal Vaccine.
In other collaborative work with WHO he contributed to the development of numerous guidance documents including:
- Ethical issues associated with vector borne diseases
- WHO guidelines on ethical issues in public health surveillance
- Managing ethical issues in infectious disease outbreaks
- Ethics in epidemics, emergencies and disasters: Research, surveillance and patient care
- Ethical issues related to study design for trials on therapeutics for Ebola virus disease
- Ethical considerations for use of unregistered interventions for Ebola virus disease
- Expert consultation on the use of placebos in vaccine trials.
In June 2021 Dr.Selgelid joined the Institute on Ethics & Policy for Innovation as a Senior Research Scholar to support the development and execution the Infectious Disease and Translational Science pillars of research.