Dr. Gregory Pence, Professor in the Department of Philosophy, has been named the 2019 winner of the Ireland Prize for Scholarly Distinction.
Dr. Pence graduated with a B.A. from the College of William and Mary, then received his M.A. and Ph.D. from New York University, where he studied applied ethics with renowned ethicist Peter Singer. He joined the faculty at UAB in 1976 and has not only been instrumental in developing our bioethics program within the Department of Philosophy, but also taught, for three decades, a required bioethics course to all UAB School of Medicine students. Dr. Pence served as chair of the Department of Philosophy from 2012-2018.
Now an acclaimed bioethics scholar, Dr. Pence's research and teaching interests include cloning and assisted reproduction. He also studies and teaches on other emerging issues in bioethics, including neuroethics, enhancement, the Ebola virus, and the Affordable Care Act.
Within his field, Dr. Pence is best known for his best-selling Medical Ethics textbook, now in its eighth edition (2017). He's also widely known for his defense of humane biotechnology—such as cloning and genetically modified crops—a position that has often put him at odds with his peers in the scientific community. His ideas on biotechnology have garnered him significant public appearances and media engagement, including testifying before the U.S. Congress and the California State Senate against bills criminalizing cloning. He has published more than 70 opinion essays in publications such as the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Chronicle of Higher Education, and The Wall Street Journal.
In addition to his seminal textbook, Dr. Pence has also published two books that have been influential not only in the field of bioethics, but within our broader society: How to Build a Better Human: An Ethical Blueprint (2012), and What We Talk About When We Talk About Clone Club: Bioethics and Philosophy in "Orphan Black" (2016), which references the blockbuster BBC America television program that ran from 2013-2017. He's also given nearly a dozen endowed lectures on bioethics at universities across the U.S. as well as in Brazil, Switzerland, China, Norway, Israel, and England.
As a UAB professor, Dr. Pence has won both the Ingalls and President's Teaching Awards; he also directs the Early Medical School Acceptance Program. Many of his students have won prestigious national scholarships and fellowships, including the Marshall and Fulbright; two students have won Rhodes Scholarships. More than 50 of his students have been awarded scholarships to medical school, and six have entered Harvard Medical School.
In addition, for many years Dr. Pence coached the UAB Ethics Bowl Team, which won the national championship in 2010. He continues to coach the UAB Bioethics Bowl Team, which won national championships in 2011, 2016 and again in April of this year.
Congratulations to Dr. Pence on this achievement.
