Erik Parens is currently principal investigator on "Crafting Tools for Public Conversation about Behavioral Genetics," a project funded by the Ethical, Social, and Legal Implications program of the National Human Genome Institute, and on "Surgically Shaping Children, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. He is also co-investigator on "Reprogenetics: A Blueprint for Meaningful Moral Debate and Responsible Public Policy" supported by the Greenwall Foundation.

From 1995 to 1997 Mr. Parens was principal investigator on the NEH-funded project "On the Prospect of Technologies Aimed at the Enhancement of Human Capacities" and from 1996-98 was principal investigator on the NIH - ELSI funded project "Prenatal Testing for Genetic Disability".

Mr. Parens has served as consultant to governmental and nongovernmental bodies, from the National Bioethics Advisory Commission to the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has published widely on a variety of topics, from pluralism and the delivery of health care services to embryonic stem cell research and the prospect of creating inheritable genetic modifications. He is editor of Enhancing Human Traits (Georgetown University Press, 1998) and coeditor of Prenatal Testing and Genetic Disability (Georgetown University Press, 2000).

Mr. Parens is also an adjunct associate professor in the Program in Science, Technology, and Society of Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York. Before coming to the Center, Mr. Parens was visiting assistant professor of philosophy at Wabash College in Chicago (1991-92); a postdoctoral fellow in the Center for Critical Inquiry at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro (1989-91); visiting assistant professor in the Honors Program at the University of Delaware (1988-89); and adjunct professor of philosophy at Villanova University (1986-87).

Mr. Parens was educated at The University of Chicago, where he received a PhD (1988) and MA (1983) from the Committee on Social Thought, and his BA (1979) from The College.