Brian Hedden

Timeline

1. 2006–2012

   Princeton and MIT degrees

   Raised in Virginia, he earns his BA at Princeton University in 2006 and completes his PhD at MIT in 2012. After Princeton, he spends a year working for an education nonprofit in Nicaragua. At MIT’s Department of Linguistics and Philosophy, Caspar Hare, Robert Stalnaker and Roger White advise his doctoral work on rationality and decision-making.

2. By 2015

   From Oxford to Sydney

   After his doctorate, he works as a junior research fellow at Oxford University. In 2015, he takes his first faculty position at the University of Sydney.

3. 2015

   Reasons without Persons

   He publishes Reasons without Persons: Rationality, Identity, and Time with Oxford University Press in 2015. The book argues that a person’s evidence determines what rationality requires of them.

4. 2021

   Associate professor at ANU

   In early 2021, he takes up an associate professorship in philosophy at the Australian National University, moving from his senior lectureship in philosophy at the University of Sydney.

5. March 2021

   Statistical criteria of fairness

   In March 2021, he publishes “On Statistical Criteria of Algorithmic Fairness” in Philosophy and Public Affairs.

6. 2024

   An APA AI2050 prize

   He receives the American Philosophical Association’s 2024 AI2050 Prize for Early Career Researchers for “On Statistical Criteria of Algorithmic Fairness.”

7. 2025

   Returning to MIT

   In 2025, he joins MIT as a professor in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy, with a Schwarzman College of Computing shared appointment in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He is also a principal investigator in the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems, and his research includes the ethics of AI.

8. 2026

   SERC and algorithmic monoculture

   In January 2026, he becomes co-associate dean of MIT’s Social and Ethical Responsibilities of Computing initiative, joining Nikos Trichakis in directing its research, teaching and engagement. With Manish Raghavan, he coauthors “Algorithmic Monoculture and its Critics” in 2026; their hiring research shows how a shared algorithm can limit exploration and how combining algorithms can reduce this problem. He also holds his shared professorship in Linguistics and Philosophy and EECS and his principal investigator role in the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems.