Tzofit Ofengenden, PhD

Tzofit Ofengenden, PhD is Assistant Professor, Director of the MS in Philosophy and Bioethics, and Associate Director of Graduate Studies in the Program in Bioethics and Medical Humanities at Tulane University School of Medicine. She holds a PhD in Philosophy from the IZEW, Tübingen University, Germany. 

Her research draws on a philosophical formation grounded in neuroethics, neurophilosophy, and the ethics of brain intervention, with a sustained interest in how scientific paradigms reshape foundational concepts such as memory, consciousness, and personal identity. These concerns have evolved toward a broader inquiry into how emerging technologies and artificial intelligence in particular transform epistemic autonomy, belief formation, and relational responsibility. Her current research examines how AI systems shape user reasoning, emotional regulation, and moral judgment, with a focus on the ethical conditions for trustworthy AI in relational contexts. 

She has submitted a major grant proposal to Schmidt Sciences on AI and relational sycophancy and holds an LB Faculty Grant supporting a pilot study on AI and mental health. A second strand of her research addresses conscience and professional obligation in healthcare, with published work on the moral case for symmetry between conscientious refusal and conscientious provision. 

She serves on the Tulane AI and Policy Task Force and delivers an annual lecture on AI, medicine, and ethics at Tulane School of Medicine. Her peer-reviewed work appears in Bioethics, the Canadian Journal of Bioethics, and RHV: An International Journal of Philosophy. Together with Chara Kokkiou, she will serve as general editor of a series of edited volumes on suffering, healing, and therapy, forthcoming with De Gruyter and Brill.