Area of Study / Keywords
bioethics
biotechnology law
health law/policy
intellectual property law
knowledge transfer
technology transfer/commercialization
clinical translation
About
My research program focuses on three main areas in health and biotechnology law and policy:
- Knowledge translation in health, biotechnology and new technologies in biomedicine. This area of research explores how health and biotechnology research is represented by the research community, industry, politicians, policy makers, the popular media, internet sites and other public venues. My research compares the translational layers between these stakeholder groups using a combination of qualitative (key informant interviews and focus groups) and quantitative research methods (lexicographic analysis, text coding, and statistical modelling).
- Impacts of commercialization/open science and intellectual property policies on scientific culture as well as knowledge and technology flows in health biotechnology. We have developed a range of novel bibliometric and scientometric methods to address policy questions. We use these in combination with more traditional methods such as survey instruments, key informant interviews, social network analysis, and statistical modelling.
- Use of commons theory to analyze the institutional development of bioresource and data repositories for biomedical research. This research also addresses access and benefit sharing and research partnerships between developed and developing countries.
Degrees
JD, University of Alberta, 2003
PhD, University of Sydney, 1995
BSc (Hons), Australian National University, 1989
Awards
Vice President Research Fellow, University of Alberta, 2015-2016
McCalla Professorship, University of Alberta, 2014
The Horace Harvey (Gold) Medal in Law, Faculty of Law, University of Alberta
The Sheldon M Chumir Memorial Essay Prize in Human Rights, Sheldon M Chumir Foundation
Blake, Cassels and Graydon Second Year Scholarship, Blake, Cassels and Graydon LLP