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BioMax Kasun works in the Roberts Ethics Lab and Kim Ethics Lab at Stanford, which use empirical methods to help anticipate, clarify and resolve ethical issues in modern biomedical research. He has interests in empirical and normative thought dedicated to increasing scientific understanding and societal appreciation of the nature, internal experience, and prevalence of mental illness and well-being, as well as in moral philosophy (e.g. justice, action, capability, neo-Aristotelianism, and pragmatism), cognitive and affective sciences, and philosophy of mind (e.g. embodiment and personhood). He has co-authored scientific, peer-reviewed articles and other scholarly work investigating ethical issues in research (e.g. authentic voluntarism in informed consent), medical education, public health, and neuroscience. His most recent contributions to NIH-funded scientific work (National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences; PI: Dr. Jane Kim) have focused on investigating ethical issues encountered in the design, development, and clinical integration of artificial intelligence, e.g., how environmental and cognitive factors shape appraisals of AI tools, clinical judgments, trust, and health decision-making.

Max is a co-author of several chapters in APA's Study Guide to DSM-5-TR (2024) including the chapters on bipolar and related disorders and personality disorders (American Psychiatric Association). He has published work in and provided editorial support for the peer-reviewed journal Academic Medicine (Oxford University Press) and for two works on the subject of trauma and crisis and related interventions, including a reference guide for providing mental health care to victims of state atrocity (United Nations, Springer). Previously, he served on leadership teams for the Stanford Mental Health Technology and Innovation Hub and Neurodiversity Project.

Max is currently working to develop a new Special Initiative of the Chair on Mental Health Care for Unhoused and Justice-Involved Persons (see https://med.stanford.edu/psychiatry/special-initiatives/mhuj.html). The initiative aims to bring together a community of scholars, public stakeholders, and health care professionals to help advance more humane and participatory inquiry and health policy in service of a population that faces profound controversy, health stigma, and scientific neglect. The initiative aims to improve how science is communicated to the public and policy decision-makers and to develop more evidence-based, pragmatic, strengths-based, and trauma-informed approaches to mental health care for unhoused persons, including those who have experienced episodic or cyclical involvement in the criminal and civil justice systems.