Recently awarded the prestigious title of Distinguished Professor, Wendy Rogers joined Macquarie University in 2009 to take up a joint appointment between the Department of Philosophy and what is now the Medical School. Wendy's current research explores the ethics of new technologies in healthcare, including artificial intelligence (AI).
1. What is your background and what brought you to Macquarie?
My original training was in medicine and general practice. While I was working part time as a GP, I did a BA majoring in philosophy and English literature, and realised that I could bring the medicine and philosophy together in the field of medical ethics. I moved into full time academia after completing my PhD in 1998 and came to Macquarie in 2009, to take up a joint appointment between the (now) Medical School and the Philosophy Department.
2. Tell us a bit about your current research and what makes it so important?
I’ve got several projects on the go. Two are related to the use of new technologies in healthcare – one is to do with the development and use of artificial intelligence (AI) and the other is to do with the ways that surgical devices are marketed and supported. I’m also a Chief Investigator on the ARC Centre of Excellence on Synthetic Biology, investigating ethical and philosophical issues that emerge as scientists try to mould biological organisms to be useful to humans.
3. What is something you have recently accomplished?
Unplugging my electric car from the charger in the Macquarie carpark – it’s got a very idiosyncratic mechanism.
4. What do you need to do your best work?
High-quality vegan food – on campus.
5. What do people always ask you when they find out what you do for a living?
“What is bioethics?”
6. What is something you’ve read recently that has had an impact on you?
“The animals in that country” by Laura Jean McKay. It’s a brilliant book – a totally engrossing imagining of what might happen if humans could understand animals and how irrelevant we are to their lives.
7. A bit about where you live and what you like about it?
My home backs onto a reserve in West Chatswood where I walk every day with my dog. I get plenty of close encounters with nature, from powerful owls, foxes, eels and bandicoots to leeches, ticks and jack jumper ants.
8. A personal quality you value in others?
Good communication, especially about timelines!
9. A moment you felt proud?
Being recognised as one of Nature’s Ten people who mattered in science for my 2019 work on unethical Chinese transplant research that led to multiple retractions. I couldn’t quite believe being on the same list as Greta Thunberg.
10. What is on your agenda for the remainder of 2022?
Keeping on top of my garden and taking some long service leave.