Mark Edward Greene

Dr. Jenny Paul, my high school biology teacher, told me I should not be a vet because I would be bored. She had a point. It's actually a great profession to be in, in many ways, but there is an awful lot of brute force learning involved in veterinary training. I started reading philosophy in order to keep my brain alive. Then while in veterinary practice near Oxford, I took some weekend philosophy classes. Fun! Fun! Fun! So I did an MA in applied ethics at the University of Hull. This was not part of a grand plan. Some of my vet school friends were taking a year out to travel – I saw myself as taking a year out for the MA and expected to go back into practice at the end of it. But then I applied for a PhD at Bristol. After two years I cut that short and crossed the pond to continue PhDing at Stanford. I was lucky enough to get a Greenwall post-doctoral fellowship in medical ethics and policy, and a job in the philosophy department at the University of Delaware where I am currently an associate professor.