Onora O'Neil#

Baroness O'Neill of Bengarve CBE FBA FMedSci FRS (Hon.) FAAAS (Hon.) MRIA (Hon.)

Born in Northern Ireland in 1941, Onora O’Neill attended schools in both the UK and Germany before going on to study philosophy, psychology and physiology at Somerville College, Oxford. She completed her doctorate at Harvard University with John Rawls as supervisor. After that she taught at Barnard College, the women's college at Columbia University, New York. In 1977 she returned to the UK to work at the University of Essex where she became Professor of Philosophy before leaving in 1992 to take on the post of Principal of Newnham College, Cambridge University.

Onora O'Neil is former President of the British Academy and chairs the Nuffield Foundation. In 2003, she was the founding President of the British Philosophical Association (BPA). Until October 2006, she was the Principal of Newnham College, Cambridge. In 1999 she was made a life peer as Baroness O'Neill of Bengarve, and sits as a crossbencher.

She has written widely on political philosophy and ethics, international justice, bioethics and the philosophy of Immanuel Kant.