Meet The Team
Jacob Shwartz-Lucas
Executive Director
Jacob is a humanitarian biotechnologist who has contributed to food security in Sub-Saharan Africa and clean water in Bangladesh. During a thesis stint at Harvard, and in interviews on Stanford University Radio with Nobelists and other guests, he's explored a wide variety of effective cause areas. Jacob created IW to strike at the genetic root of all humanitarian crises i.e., life's shared basis for suffering.
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David Pearce
Director of Bioethics
David is a philosopher and the author of The Hedonistic Imperative which outlines a bold vision for phasing out the biology of suffering. He is the co-founder of the WTA / Humanity+ with Nick Bostrom. His work has centered on replacing the traditional pleasure-pain axis with a new architecture of mind based on information-sensitive gradients of well-being.
Adam Shriver
Chief Strategy Officer
Adam holds a Ph.D. from the Philosophy-Neuroscience-Psychology program at Washington University in St. Louis. He has worked at Oxford, UPenn, and the University of British Columbia. Adam’s research spans many topics, but he is perhaps best known for his work on the dissociation between the affective and sensory components of pain.
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Lourdes Maigua Medrano
Researcher
Lourdes is a third-year Biology undergraduate at Oxford interested in wildlife conservation and evolution. She is passionate about the study of natural genetic diversity and its importance in conservation efforts.
Zachary Braithwaite
Researcher
Zach is a second-year Biology Undergraduate at Oxford interested in neural circuits and ecological conservation. He is excited about the judicious use of genetic engineering for improving crop yields and minimizing suffering.
Anna Keszthelyi
Researcher
Anna has a degree in Biological Sciences from the University of Oxford and a master's in One Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Royal Veterinary College. Anna is excited about the use of genetic techniques to reduce suffering in different species.
Coral Benfield
Researcher
Coral is a second year Biochemistry undergraduate at Oxford interested in cell signaling, genetics, and protein structure and function. She is curious about the history and philosophy of science and believes in an interdisciplinary approach to finding effective research paths.
Remarez Sheehan
Researcher
Remi is a fourth year medical student at Oxford with a medical sciences degree focused on cellular and systems neuroscience. He is interested in the mechanisms of deep brain stimulation and its application as a therapy for neurological and psychiatric diseases. Remi's focus is neurosurgery.
Aysha Adam
Researcher
Aysha is a first-year Biology undergraduate at Oxford interested in neuroscience, psychology, and genetics. She is interested in finding relevant research pathways to reduce degenerative diseases and the impact it has on the people around the patient.
Mark Mollineaux
Stanford University Radio
Mark is the Program Director for KZSU Stanford, liaising between the station and Invincible Wellbeing. In 2016, Mark and Jacob launched HGP, a show about economic justice and ending poverty. The two have interviewed Nobel Prize winners and representatives from companies like Microsoft and YCombinator.
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Jonathan Holmén
Development
Jonathan’s life goal is to reduce suffering via biotech R&D. With more than 10 years of experience in preclinical contract research, drug development, and management consulting, he has served on core teams responsible for generating investment toward IPOs (>$70M), and pharmaceutical out-licensing agreements (>$120M).
Jackson Champer
Advisor
Jackson completed his postdoc at Cornell before joining Peking University as a professor in 2021 and opening a research group that specializes in gene drive experimentation and computational modeling. Jackson attempts to keep his lab friendly to both students and other animals by personally blood-feeding mosquitoes.
Anthony John Webster
Advisor
John is Professor Emeritus at the University of Bristol, where in 1977 he first established The Animal Welfare and Behaviour Group, now the largest such group in the world. He is one of the first proponents of the internationally recognized "five freedoms" welfare standards. He was a founder member of the Farm Animal Welfare Council, former President of both the Nutrition Society and the British Society for Animal Science, a member of Voiceless’ Scientific Animal Welfare Advisory Committee, and the Animal Health and Welfare Panel of the European Food Safety Agency.
Gary Lynn Comstock
Advisor
Gary is especially interested in animal minds and behavior. He received his doctoral degree from the University of Chicago and taught at Iowa State University for twenty years. He is now an Alumni Distinguished Undergraduate Professor of Philosophy at North Carolina State University. Comstock served as principal investigator, co-PI or consultant on some thirty grants totaling more than a million dollars, including major awards from the European Commission, the National Science Foundation, the US DoA, and the National Agricultural Biotechnology Council.