Dr Ulrich Stegmann

Biography

I joined the department in 2009, after being a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Cambridge and King’s College London, and a Teaching Associate at the University of Bristol. I received my MA and PhD (2006) from King’s College London. Before coming to the UK, I studied biology in Germany and the USA and obtained a PhD in zoology. In 2016, I was a Visiting Professor for the Philosophy of the Life Sciences at Utrecht University.

Internal Memberships

Head of Discipline for Philosophy

Research Overview

Philosophy of Science, especially the History and Philosophy of Biology

My research focuses on genetic causation, the nature of purportedly informational or representational phenomena, and the role of diagrams in mechanistic modelling. Much of my work addresses these issues in the context of molecular biology and animal behaviour studies. The overall goal of my work is a better understanding of biology as it is actually practiced, its fundamental concepts, its ontological commitments, its tools and methods. Some of my work employs historical research to address the philosophical issues at stake.