Dr. Nancy Jecker Awarded 2025 JSPS BRIDGE Fellowship

Dr. Nancy Jecker was awarded the 2025 Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) International BRIDGE Fellowship. The fellowship supports former JSPS International Fellows with an eye to sustaining and growing collaborative research between American and Japanese scholars. 

Hosted by the University of Tokyo Faculty of Medicine’s Department of Bioethics, Dr. Jecker will conduct research on ethical frameworks for using prosocial artificial intelligence (AI) to combat social isolation and loneliness among older adults. Her work will examine cultural differences in human-robot interactions, focusing on how Japanese and Western philosophies shape attitudes toward human-robot companionship and implications for public health. 

She will collaborate with colleagues at leading institutions, including the University of Tokyo, Kyoto University, Osaka University, and the Japan Medical Association, to advance cross-cultural understanding of AI ethics. Dr. Jecker also hopes to incorporate insights gained from this fellowship into a book she is coauthoring with Drs. Caesar Atuire and Vardit Ravitsky on next-generation principles for bioethics and global health. 

Congratulations to Dr. Jecker on this exciting opportunity!