Naomi Hawkins

Naomi Hawkins is an Associate Professor at the University of Exeter Law School, where she is Director of the Science, Culture and the Law research group (SCuLE). She obtained her LLB and her BSc (Biomedical Science) from the University of Queensland before being admitted as a legal practitioner in Australia. She completed her BCL and doctorate in law at the University of Oxford, as a member of the Ethox Centre then HeLEX.

Naomi’s research focuses on the interaction of law and biomedical science, particularly around intellectual property rights. She uses traditional legal research and empirical methods to investigate the impact of human gene patents on the development of translational outcomes of genetics and genomics research. She is also interested in the ways in which data sharing practices intersect with intellectual property rights in science. Naomi has recently completed an ESRC Future Leaders Research grant for her project, “The Impact of Patents on Translational Research – Non-Invasive Prenatal Diagnosis in Europe and the US”.