Bio


Ann C Thresher is an applied ethicist working as part of the new school for sustainability at Stanford University. She received her PhD from the University of California, San Diego, working in the philosophy of science and environmental-ethics, and has two bachelor’s degrees from the University of Sydney, one in Philosophy and one in Physics. She was a graduate fellow at the Institute for Applied Ethics at UC San Diego, and a 2022 Heinrich Hertz fellow at the University of Bonn.

Her work focuses on emerging environmental technologies and, in particular, what risks we’re warranted in taking to solve environmental crises. As part of this, she works extensively with scientists and policy-makers to help identify and solve the ethics questions that arise out of their work. Current projects include papers on gene-drives, modelling, moratoriums, geo-engineering, and our obligations to future generations. She is also interested in the philosophy of space science and expansion and is currently working on the ethical problems of telescope siting as part of the Next Generation Event Horizon Telescope's HPC working group.

Stanford Advisors


Research Interests


  • Environmental Education
  • Philosophy

All Publications


  • Big STEM collaborations should include humanities and social science. Nature human behaviour Marcoci, A., Thresher, A. C., Martens, N. C., Galison, P., Doeleman, S. S., Johnson, M. D. 2023

    View details for DOI 10.1038/s41562-023-01674-x

    View details for PubMedID 37563305

  • Key Science Goals for the Next-Generation Event Horizon Telescope GALAXIES Johnson, M. D., Akiyama, K., Blackburn, L., Bouman, K. L., Broderick, A. E., Cardoso, V., Fender, R. P., Fromm, C. M., Galison, P., Gomez, J. L., Haggard, D., Lister, M. L., Lobanov, A. P., Markoff, S., Narayan, R., Natarajan, P., Nichols, T., Pesce, D. W., Younsi, Z., Chael, A., Chatterjee, K., Chaves, R., Doboszewski, J., Dodson, R., Doeleman, S. S., Elder, J., Fitzpatrick, G., Haworth, K., Houston, J., Issaoun, S., Kovalev, Y. Y., Levis, A., Lico, R., Marcoci, A., Martens, N. M., Nagar, N. M., Oppenheimer, A., Palumbo, D. M., Ricarte, A., Rioja, M. J., Roelofs, F., Thresher, A. C., Tiede, P., Weintroub, J., Wielgus, M. 2023; 11 (3)
  • The Next Generation Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration: History, Philosophy, and Culture GALAXIES Galison, P., Doboszewski, J., Elder, J., Martens, N. M., Ashtekar, A., Enander, J., Gueguen, M., Kessler, E. A., Lalli, R., Lesourd, M., Marcoci, A., Ramirez, S., Natarajan, P., Nguyen, J., Reyes-Galindo, L., Ritson, S., Schneider, M. D., Skulberg, E., Sorgner, H., Stanley, M., Thresher, A. C., Van Dongen, J., Weatherall, J., Wu, J., Wuethrich, A. 2023; 11 (1)
  • When Extinction Is Warranted: Invasive Species, Suppression-Drives and the Worst-Case Scenario ETHICS POLICY & ENVIRONMENT Thresher, A. C. 2022; 25 (2): 132-152