Leah Witkowski.

Lea Witkowsky

Executive director
Kavli Center for Ethics, Science, and the Public, University of California, Berkeley

Lea Witkowsky, PhD, is a molecular biologist by training and executive director of the Kavli Center for Ethics, Science, and the Public at the University of California, Berkeley, where she leads initiatives that connect scientists, humanities scholars, policymakers and the public to examine the ethical and societal dimensions of emerging science and technology. The center focuses on fostering public-responsive and ethically grounded approaches to advances in artificial intelligence, neuroscience and genome editing. ACORD, the Autism Communities and Research Dialogue initiative, reflects the center’s commitment to public-responsive neuroscience by creating space for basic scientists alongside autistic and autism community members to shape research questions, priorities and impacts together.

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/lea-witkowsky-49156027

From this contributor

Explore more from The Transmitter

Illustration of birdsong, bird brain, and DNA.

This paper changed my life: Embracing an early model for naturalistic neuroscience

A 1992 PNAS paper showed how birdsong upregulates the expression of an immediate early gene in bird forebrains. The work revealed to Ribeiro the importance of studying molecular responses in naturalistic contexts.

By Sidarta Ribeiro
14 July 2026 | 4 min read
Illustration of an open journal featuring lines of text and small illustrations of eyes and mouths.

Major ischemic events in autistic people, and more

Here is a roundup of autism-related news and research spotted around the web for the week of 13 July.

By Jill Adams
14 July 2026 | 1 min read
Illustration of lucid dreaming.

Watching the mind build a world: Lucid dreaming as a model for generative perception

Lucid dreaming offers a rare opportunity to observe and probe perception from within.

By Magdalena Paluchowska
13 July 2026 | 8 min read