Robert Klitzman

Robert Klitzman is the director of the Bioethics master's program, a member of the Division of Psychiatry, Law, and Ethics at Columbia University, and a professor of Clinical Psychiatry at the College of Physicians and Surgeons. He co-founded and for five years co-directed the Center for Bioethics at Columbia University and was the director of the Ethics and Policy Core of the HIV Center for 10 years. Professor Klitzman has written nine books and more than 140 academic papers, drawing on multidisciplinary methods to examine ethical, psychological, and social issues in a variety of contexts in medicine and psychiatry. Specifically, he has examined decision-making concerning HIV disclosure, genetic testing, reproductive choices among people at risk for genetic disorders, neuroethics, HIV prevention and treatment, research ethics, doctor-patient relationships, and other subjects. He has received several subsidies from the National Health Institute and numerous awards for his work, including fellowships from the Russell Sage Foundation, the Commonwealth Fund, the Aaron Diamond Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation. He is a member of the Empire State Stem Cell Commission and of the Ethics Working Group at the HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN). Professor Klitzman is a regular contributor to the New York Times and has been widely interviewed on bioethics issues in the media. Dr. Klitzman received a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University, holds a Doctor of Medicine from Yale University School of Medicine, and was a resident at the Robert Wood Johnson School at the University of Pennsylvania.