Mona-Marie Wandrey

Supervisor: Marta Halina

Advisor: Henry Shevlin

Thesis topic: Managing uncertainty in consciousness science

My research focuses on how to manage the uncertainty involved in ascribing consciousness to others, particularly brain-injured patients with disorders of consciousness and non-human animals. In both of these cases, the capacity for conscious experience has profound implications for moral decision-making. My goal is to develop a precautionary framework that guides how we treat subjects whose consciousness is uncertain, by combining empirical and ethical considerations in an interdisciplinary way. Before starting my PhD, I completed a medical degree and doctorate at Charité Berlin, an MPhil in Philosophy of Science and Medicine at Cambridge, and worked as a medical doctor in a neurology department in Berlin.

Publications

Wandrey, M. (2025). Patient values and inductive risk in disorders of consciousness. European Journal for Philosophy of Science, 15(3), 44. 

Wandrey, M., Halina, M. (2025). The Evolution of Animal Consciousness. Philosophy Compass, 20(12), e70069.

Wandrey, M., & Halina, M. (2025). Sentience and society: Towards a more values-informed approach to policy. Mind & Language, 1-8.

Awards

Since 2022: Harding Distinguished Postgraduate Scholarship, University of Cambridge

2021: Rausing Prize (Best dissertation, University of Cambridge)

2021: Redhead Prize (Joint best essay performance, University of Cambridge)

2014-2021: Scholarship of the German Academic Scholarship Foundation