The Entrepreneurship, Practice and Innovation Centre (EPICentre), the Faculty of Law, and the Office of Research Innovation and Services are delighted to jointly announce the appointment of Professor Myra J. Tawfik as EPICentre Professor in Intellectual Property Commercialization and Strategy for a two-year term, beginning January 4, 2016. This Professorship will support Professor Tawfik in her research and scholarly activities regarding intellectual property, innovation and commercialization, especially as they pertain to EPICentre.

Professor Tawfik is currently a Senior Fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), International Law Research Program, which has graciously supported her new endeavour at EPICentre. The EPICentre Professorship will complement the research in which she has been engaged at CIGI in relation to capacity-building in intellectual property law and practice in a global innovation economy. Professor Tawfik will bring her knowledge and expertise to advance EPICentre’s research and outreach initiatives in IP commercialization and the strategic management of IP.

Professor Tawfik is an expert in intellectual property law. Most recently, she has been studying models and tools for strengthening the intellectual property legal framework within entrepreneurial eco-systems. Among other activities, she has established intellectual property law clinics on our campus and facilitated a joint arrangement between Windsor Law and CIGI for a summer clinic at the Communitech Accelerator in Waterloo. She is also co-developing, for CIGI, an online self-study course on IP Strategy intended for a broad public audience. This CIGI MOOC is being integrated into a new course at Windsor Law and will be piloted at EPICentre to test its adaptability to other disciplines on campus.