Vanessa Rampton

• Senior Researcher within Assisted Lab, Chair of Medical Humanities, University of St Gallen, 2023–present
• Affiliate Member of the Department of Equity, Ethics and Policy, McGill University, 2022–present
• Senior Scientist at Chair for Philosophy with Particular Emphasis on Practical Philosophy, ETH Zurich, 2022
• Postdoctoral position at Institute of Health and Social Policy, McGill University, 2018–2022
• ETH Fellow & postdoctoral position at Chair for Philosophy with Particular Emphasis on Practical Philosophy, ETH Zurich, 2015-2018
• PhD, King’s College, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom, 2013
• MA, University College London, United Kingdom, 2006
• Licence, University of Geneva and the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva, Switzerland, 2004

During her fellowship, Vanessa Rampton investigated how progress as a powerful cultural idea shaped the history and practice of medicine from ancient times to the present day. Her research shows that ideas about progress in medicine have always been contested, and bound up with attitudes to persons, health, and power. While different notions of progress held sway in medicine at different times, recent enthusiasm for health artificial intelligence and genomics, for example, pick up on longer-running threads in the history of the idea of progress. By presenting the historical origins, as well as the ethical and epistemic strengths of differing visions of medical progress, this research offers insights into how to make meaningful progress in medicine. Her monograph, entitled Making Medical Progress: History of a Contested Idea, is under contract with Cambridge University Press.

• Choice 2020 Outstanding Academic Title, category political theory
• Oxford Philosophy Journals’ ‘Best of 2017’ prize for an article
• ETH Zurich Post-Doctoral Fellowship Grant, Chair of Philosophy with Particular Emphasis on Practical Philosophy, D-GESS, ETH Zurich (2015)
• King’s College, University of Cambridge research grants (2007 – 2011)
• Cambridge Commonwealth Trust Scholarship (2007 – 2012)