Case Western Reserve University - Professor & Director of Inamori International Center Ethics

Academic Career & Executive Search is pleased to assist Case Western Reserve University in its search for Inamori Professor in Ethics and Director of the Inamori International Center for Ethics and Excellence.

For best consideration, please apply by November 16, 2026. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, and screening and interviews may begin immediately. This position may be filled before the best consideration date.

Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) is seeking a distinguished scholar to become the next Inamori Professor in Ethics and Director of the Inamori International Center for Ethics and Excellence (Inamori Center). We welcome exceptional candidates across all disciplines, with particular interest in research focused on the ethics of artificial intelligence, technology, and neuroscience, that engages the humanities, engineering and/or medicine. The position will include a faculty appointment in one of the CWRU academic departments, at the rank of full professor with tenure.

For an accomplished scholar energized by interdisciplinary engagement, this is a distinctive opportunity to shape the next chapter of the Inamori Center, which for 20 years has served as the interdisciplinary hub for ethics at CWRU, advancing a university-wide mission in ethics with global reach.

As Inamori Professor in Ethics and Director of the Inamori Center, the successful candidate will have latitude to develop and advance a compelling strategic vision for the Center and expand its impact across CWRU and beyond. The Director role provides a meaningful platform to build and strengthen interdisciplinary engagement across the University, bringing people and ideas together, developing new initiatives and partnerships, and advancing scholarship, teaching, and dialogue around consequential ethical questions, while maintaining scholarly engagement.

CWRU’s strengths in engineering and medicine are complemented by growing investment at the intersection of the humanities and emerging technologies. A $125 million gift from the Mandel Foundation in 2026 includes support for a new humanities building and funding for integrating humanities with STEM approaches, while the University’s new $300 million Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Building brings together researchers across Arts and Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

This environment creates fertile ground for the Director to forge connections across artificial intelligence, technology, engineering, medicine, neuroscience, the humanities, and other fields, engaging scholars, students, and external partners around some of the most consequential ethical questions facing society.

The Director will also provide leadership for the Inamori Ethics Prize, the Center’s prestigious international award recognizing individuals whose ethical leadership has significantly improved the condition of humankind. Previous recipients include 2018 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dr. Denis Mukwege, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and LeVar Burton, reflecting the breadth and stature of the leaders recognized by the Prize.

The Inamori Professor and Director will hold a tenured faculty appointment at the full professor level in the academic department and school most appropriate to the successful candidate’s discipline, with approximately 75% of the role dedicated to leadership of the Center.

This is an on-campus appointment in Cleveland, Ohio, reporting to the Vice Provost for Interdisciplinary and International Initiatives.

Established in 2006 through a transformational gift from the…