The former deputy editor of BioEdge has been appointed director of a bioethics think tank in Australia. Dr Xavier Symons, who is currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard University, is the new director of Plunkett Centre for Ethics at the Australian Catholic University, in Sydney.

Dr Symons is a philosopher and bioethicist. He completed his PhD at the Australian Catholic University in 2020 with a thesis on the ethics of healthcare resource allocation. He also has degrees from the University of Sydney and the University of Oxford.

Dr Symons is a philosopher and bioethicist. He completed his PhD at the Australian Catholic University in 2020 with a thesis on the ethics of healthcare resource allocation. He also has degrees from the University of Sydney and the University of Oxford.

Dr Symons has worked as a researcher and lecturer at the University of Notre Dame Australia and the Australian Catholic University. He completed a Fulbright Future Postdoctoral Scholarship at Georgetown University’s Kennedy Institute for Ethics in 2021-22 with a research project on the ethics of dementia. He has also taught bioethics at the University of Technology Sydney Faculty of Law.

His work has been published in journals such as the Medical Journal of Australia, the Journal of Medical Ethics, the Kennedy Institute for Ethics Journal, and Res Publica – as well as BioEdge. He also writes regularly for popular audiences in both Australia and abroad and his work has been featured in outlets including the Sydney Morning Herald, the Australian Financial Review, ABC Religion and Ethics, The Guardian, and Public Discourse.