Katherine Rickus

Katherine is a psychiatrist and philosopher, with an interdisciplinary knowledge of psychology, neuroscience, and philosophy. Her clinical practice has taken her to Afghanistan and DR Congo, with Medicins Sans Frontieres earlier in her career. She has since then practiced General Psychiatry, mainly in the UK, and also in Australia and New Zealand.

She has a PhD in Philosophy from Columbia University, NYC, in the area of Moral Psychology, with a focus on emotions. She has taught extensively on topics in Ethical Theory, Moral Psychology, and in Applied Ethics, including Biomedical Ethics; the ethics of technology (especially medical data privacy); and Environmental Ethics. She also has experience consulting on strategic planning in educational and healthcare settings.

She brings expertise to Principia on: ethical issues in the pharmaceutical industry; the use of confidential data; AI technology, especially in consultations, mental health applications, and affect research; global health ethics and NGOs; and emotional health in the workplace. These applied interests are grounded Katherine’s wider theoretical interests in emotional regulation and well-being, social cognition, self-knowledge, personality theory, effective altruism, and moral concerns about health inequalities.