keynote Speaker

Samuel Brown is a physician-scientist whose scientific work has focused on the effect of life-threatening infections on the heart and lungs, especially conditions known as sepsis and ARDS. He and his teams responded to the COVID-19 pandemic with extensive research, including clinical trials of promising therapies. He leads or co-leads multiple national and international efforts in COVID-19 and related conditions. He also works as an intensive care unit physician and is Professor of Internal Medicine and Medical Ethics and Humanities at University Utah and Research Professor at Intermountain Healthcare. In those capacities he has led important work to humanize medical care, especially for those facing a life-threatening health crisis. He has published around 200 scientific papers and 7 books, including Through the Valley of Shadows: Living Wills, Intensive Care, and Making Medicine Human (Oxford, 2016), which calls for a fundamental rethinking of both intensive care and advance care planning. He is an internationally prominent advocate of nimbly rigorous, patient-centered approaches to medical ethics.

A lapsed atheist, Sam is a believing and practicing Latter-day Saint who rests from doing science and medicine by writing books and essays on religious history, theology, ethics, and culture. His most recent books include Joseph Smith’s Translation: the Words and Worlds of Early Mormonism (Oxford University Press, 2020) and Where the Soul Hungers (Maxwell Institute and Deseret Book, 2021). He loves family, friends, his ward, and wild places.