James A. Marcum is professor of philosophy and past director of the Medical Humanities Program at Baylor University. He earned doctorates in philosophy from Boston College and in physiology from the University of Cincinnati Medical College. He was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a faculty member at Harvard Medical School for over a decade before arriving at Baylor University's Philosophy department. He has received grants from several funding agencies, including the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the American Heart Association. He delivers invited lectures frequently at both national and international conferences. His current research interests include the philosophy and history of medicine and science.