Prof. Dr. med. Alena Buyx M.A. phil., FRSA

Institute Director

Prof. Alena Buyx, MD, is Professor of Ethics in Medicine and Health Technologies and Director of the Institute for the History and Ethics of Medicine (IGEM) at the Technical University of Munich (TUM).

She holds the venia legendi for the subject triad of ethics, history and theory of medicine. In 2016, she was appointed to the German Ethics Council and was its chairperson in her second term of office from 2020 to 2024. Since 2024, she has been a member of the German Federal Government's Expert Council on Health and Resilience.

Alena Buyx works across the breadth of biomedical ethics and theory, from the 'classic' medical ethics issues arising from clinical practice, to challenges posed by biotechnological innovation and medical research; to ethical and justice issues in modern health care systems.

She follows an interdisciplinary approach of embedded ethics, where ethical aspects are part of the development of medical innovations from the very beginning. She collaborates with clinical colleagues as well as with lawyers, social scientists, philosophers, health economists or psychologists.

Alena Buyx publishes high-ranking articles on her research topics, for example in Science, BMJ, or Bioethics. In the last five years, she has raised over €3.5 million in external funding for her own ethics projects (EU, DFG, BMBF, etc.) and has been or is PI in various major proposals (Wissenschaftsrat, Exzellenzinitiative, etc.).

She is a member of various national, international and university committees, regularly advises large international research consortia and gives numerous lectures to a wide variety of audiences. In 2020, she became a member of the Leopoldina in the section "Philosophy of Science". She also advises various governmental and political institutions on health care issues.

Professor Alena Buyx is a fully qualified physician with further degrees in philosophy and sociology. Prior to her appointment in Munich, she worked at the University of Kiel, the University of Münster, Harvard University, Deputy Director of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics and Senior Fellow at University College London.

  1. Ethical implications of modern biomedicine and health technology.
  2. Research Ethics
  3. Social and Public Health Ethics
  4. Embedded Ethics
  5. Solidarity
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