Thinking Matters Faculty

Professor Lipsick’s career as a poet went astray when he found a job at the unemployment office working in a laboratory, fell in love with research, and eventually became obsessed with understanding how mistakes in our own genes cause cancer.  He is a professor of Pathology, Genetics, and Biology.

Professor Magnus is Thomas A. Raffin Professor of Medicine and Biomedical Ethics and Professor (Teaching) of Pediatrics, and the Director of the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics. He is the co-Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Bioethics and President of the Association of Bioethics Program Directors.

Ian Morris is the Jean and Rebecca Willard Professor of Classics. He has excavated in Britain, Greece, and Italy, most recently as director of Stanford’s dig at Monte Polizzo, a native Sicilian site from the age of Greek colonization. His book Why the West Rules—For Now (2010) was translated into thirteen languages, and his most recent publication, War! What is it Good For? (2014), was translated into five.

Professor Ober teaches courses and writes books and articles on Greek history, political thought, and what the ancient theory and practice of citizenship could teach leaders of modern organizations. He is the Tsakopoulos Kounalakis Professor in Honor of Constantine Mitsotakis.

Scott D. Sagan is the Caroline S.G. Munro Professor of Political Science, the Peter and Mimi Haas University Fellow in Undergraduate Education, and Senior Fellow at the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC). He is a specialist on nuclear weapons and international security and the recipient of four major teaching awards. His distant relative, Major General George E. Pickett, led the final Confederate charge at Gettysburg.

Blakey Vermeule writes and thinks about cognitive science and human artistic expression. She has come to appreciate how deeply the stories we learn about (from our families, our churches, synagogues, and mosques, our media, our surroundings) shape our sense of identity; and in turn how the stories we tell can immeasurably shape the world we find.