At NEAVS, we’re working harder than ever to put an end to primate experiments.
To that end, we’ve assembled an all-star team of credentialed experts in the field of animal research and primate experiments.
Our new Primate Testing Advisory Committee (PTAC) is being chaired by John Gluck, a former primate scientist who authored the compelling and groundbreaking 2016 book Voracious Science and Vulnerable Animals.
Here’s a more in-depth look at each of these experts, who we’re so excited to be working with and taking advice from:
John Gluck, Chair
John P. Gluck is Emeritus Professor of Psychology at the University of New Mexico (UNM) and Research Professor of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics, Georgetown University. He worked for many years on nonhuman primate abnormal development. Developing clarity on the extraordinary welfare costs that were extracted from the animals in order to conduct this research, he ended his involvement. He was the founding Director of the Research Ethics Service Project in the Office of Research at UNM, Co-Director of the UNM Health Science Center Ethics Institute, and Senior Advisor to the UNM President on research ethics. He is coauthor of Applied Ethics in Animal Research (2002) and The Human Use of Animals (1998, 2008). He is the author of Voracious Science and Vulnerable Animals: A Primate Scientist’s Ethical Journey (2016). [Department page]
David Morton
David Morton is Professor Emeritus of Biomedical Science and Ethics at the University of Birmingham, UK. He is a veterinary surgeon whose research interests concern the recognition, assessment and alleviation of pain and distress in animals. Morton’s 1985 paper “Guidelines on the recognition of pain, distress and discomfort in experimental animals and an hypothesis for assessment” was the first known attempt to promote a structured assessment system for pain and distress in animals. This hugely influential paper is widely credited with having ultimately improved how animals are treated in research in the UK, EU, and elsewhere. In 2017 he was awarded the British Veterinary Association’s (BVA) most prestigious scientific award for his many diverse contributions including those related to the ethical consequences of our use of animals.
Stacy Lopresti-Goodman
Dr. Lopresti-Goodman is an Associate Professor of Psychology, a past Ethics Fellow, and the Honors Program Director, at Marymount University in Arlington, VA. She teaches courses on topics relating to biological and primate psychology. Her research is aimed at understanding the enduring negative impact that confinement, social isolation, and physical abuse have on the psychological well-being of animals rescued from laboratories, including chimpanzees, monkeys, and dogs, and has conducted research at primate sanctuaries in the United States, Kenya, and Spain. She has published in peer-reviewed journals such as Neuroscience Letters, Journal of Trauma & Dissociation, Psychology and Education, and the Journal of Animal Ethics, and has been featured in media outlets such as the Washington Post, Nature, NPR, and Science. [Department page]
Sushila Maharjan
Dr. Maharjan received her M.S. degree in Chemistry from Tribhuvan University, Nepal and Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Department of Life Science and Biochemical Engineering at Sun Moon University, Korea. Her doctoral research focused on genetic and metabolic engineering of biosynthetic pathways of antibiotics/anticancer drugs production. She is currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Brigham and Women’s Hospital at Harvard Medical School. Her current interest is to study sex differences in diseases using organ-on- a-chip model. [Department page]
Martin L. Stephens
Dr. Stephens is Senior Research Associate at John Hopkins University. He is affiliated with the Environmental Health and Engineering Department as well as the Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing. His current efforts are directed primarily to establishing the discipline of evidence-based toxicology (EBT) by translating the principles and tools of evidence-based medicine to toxicity testing. His work aims to facilitate the adoption of new testing methods based on perturbations of biological pathways, as envisioned in the 2007 National Research Council report on “Toxicity Testing in the 21st Century.” [Department page]