Janella Baxter

Janella completed her PhD at the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2017. She was part of the project “From Biological Practice to Scientific Metaphysics” as a postdoctoral research fellow from Fall 2016-Summer 2018. Her work examines the role technology development and use play in generating knowledge about the biological world. By drawing from synthetic biology, genetics, and neuroscience, Janella complicates the relationship between fundamental and applied research, demonstrates how artificial possibilities feature into the reasoning of biologists, and defends general principles for successful technology development.

Her papers “Lessons for Causal Selection from Biological Technology,” “When Causal Specificity is Too Much of a Good Thing,” and “Progress: Scientific and Technological (The Story of CRISPR)” are under review.

Upon completion of her post-doc at the Center, Janella moved to the position of Lecturere at the Philosophy department at Washington University.