Something of a tectonic shift is about to occur in professional bioethics. Howard Brody, a physician and philosopher who is by any estimation one of the very best writers in the field and a precient and thorough scholar, is leaving the Michigan State program, where he has worked since 1980, for University of Texas Medical Branch.
About 50 degrees warmer and several thousand miles away from Detroit, UTMB Galveston played an important role in the founding of bioethics and is a hive of activity in several areas of the field. It is home to a surprising number of superior senior scholars and a long-standing PhD program.
It is a good place but Galveston needed a strong replacement in the director slot for Ron Carson, as it faces a decade of faculty transitions. So UT lured Howard Brody, who as director of the Michigan State program from 1985-2000 did what many describe as an incredible job of program building. It is a significant move for the field.
[thanks btw to Eric Berger at Houston Chronicle; he writes their great science blog]