Dr. Chidi Oguamanam is the University Research Chair in Sustainable Bio-Innovation, Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Global Knowledge Governance, a Faculty Member of the Centre for Law, Technology and Society, and a Full Professor within the Faculty of Law, Common Law Section, at the University of Ottawa.
Dr. Chidi Oguamanam is called to the Bar in Nigeria and Canada and is a member of the Nigerian Bar Association and the Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society. Inducted to the Royal Society of Canada College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists, he holds several senior research fellowships globally. He is the co-founder and director of the Open African Innovation Research network, Open AIR. He is also the Director of Access and Benefit Sharing Canada (ABS Canada).
Dr. Oguamanam is a global thought leader in the diverse areas of his interdisciplinary research interests, including global knowledge governance through intellectual property and technology law, with emphasis on biodiversity, biotechnology, life sciences and Indigenous knowledge systems. He explores the intersections of Western science and the non-Western epistemic orders of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities in relation to the global dynamics of negotiating access to and the benefits of science, technology and formal and informal innovations.
He has published several books, articles and studies on international intellectual property law-making, international development, biotechnology in the context of health and agriculture, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous knowledge, farmers’ rights, access and benefit sharing over genetic resources, environmental law and biodiversity conservation, the policy and legal intersections of traditional and hi-tech agricultural practices, the documentation and digitization of local knowledge systems, globalization, complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), medical ethics, nutrition, public health law and policy, colonialism, the legal profession, and the Nigerian movie industry (Nollywood).