Victor Matthew Cole
Profile
Biography
Dr. Victor Cole is Assistant Professor in the Centre for Professional Communication at Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT). He is an ethicist and communications educator with more than 20 years' experience in innovative curriculum development and programme leadership at the tertiary level. Throughout his career, he has sought meaningful opportunities to develop stakeholders' critical thinking and communication skills around ethical issues in a variety of professional domains (e.g., medicine, nursing, allied health, engineering and hospitality). He is committed to researching moral challenges arising from boundary-pushing technological endeavours (e.g., human enhancement and spaceflight) and is experienced in ethical board review and research ethics training. Victor is also a seasoned moderator of C-level panel discussions on innovation and entrepreneurship and of public forums on bioethics.
SIT Appointments
- Assistant Professor– Present
Education
- MA (Distinction) in Critical TheoryUniversity of Nottingham , United Kingdom
- PhD (Bioethics)Monash University , Australia
- Postgraduate Certificate in EducationUniversity of Oxford , United Kingdom
- BA (Hons) in English Language & LiteratureUniversity of Reading , United Kingdom
Corporate Experience
- Programme Director, ‘Science, Health and Policy-relevant Ethics in Singapore’ (SHAPES), Centre for Biomedical Ethics, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore ($2M National Medical Research Council-funded initiative)–
Research
Research Interests
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Bioethics
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Space ethics
I am interested in a wide array of ethical issues arising from human endeavour in space, e.g. human health hazards in long-duration spaceflight, reproduction in space, and the exploitation of the space environment.
Publication
Journal Papers
Kagan, B.J., Mahlis, M., Bhat, A., Bongard, J., Cole, V.M., Corlett, P., Gyngell, C., Hartung, T., Jupp, B., Levin, M., Lysaght, T., Opie, N., Razi, A., Smirnova, L., Tennant, I., Wade, P.T., Wang, G., (2024). Toward a nomenclature consensus for diverse intelligent systems: Call for collaboration. The Innovation 5(5). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xinn.2024.100658
Rajput, S., Mayor, I., Diamond, M., Rosenberg, M., Cole, V., Bhakare, N., Aziz, O., & Wilder, A. L. (2023). Medical ethics of long-duration spaceflight. npj Microgravity 9(85). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41526-023-00333-9
Kagan, B. J., Gyngell, C., Lysaght, T., Cole, V. M., Sawai, T., & Savulescu, J. (2023). The technology, opportunities, and challenges of Synthetic Biological Intelligence, Biotechnology Advances, 68. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biotechadv.2023.108233
Conferences
“Incorporating AI into physiotherapy practice: Opportunities and ethical challenges.” Paper delivered at 3rd Singapore-International Physiotherapy Congress (13-14 July 2024), One Farrer Hotel, Singapore.
“The ethics of human enhancement for spaceflight”. Invited paper delivered at 3rd Singapore International Public Health Conference & 17th Singapore Public Health & Occupational Medicine Conference (19 – 20 October 2023), Grand Copthorne Waterfront, Singapore).
Books
Cole, V. (2021). “Public engagement and bioethics in Singapore”. In P. Lim & S. Tan (Eds.), The future of bioethics in Singapore (pp. 159-169). Bioethics Advisory Committee, Singapore.