Melissa F. Wasserman

Melissa F. Wasserman is the Charles Tilford McCormick Professor of Law at Texas Law, University of Texas at Austin, where she also serves as Associate Dean for Research. She joined the faculty in 2016 after previously teaching at the University of Illinois College of Law. Professor Wasserman holds a unique interdisciplinary background with a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Princeton University and a J.D. magna cum laude from New York University School of Law.

Her educational background includes a B.S. in chemical engineering with high honors from Pennsylvania State University, a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Princeton University focusing on thermodynamics of network-forming liquids, and a J.D. from NYU Law where she served as an articles editor for the New York University Law Review. As a graduate student, she was both a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow and an American Association of University Women Selected Professions Fellow.

Professor Wasserman's research focuses on innovation policy, particularly the intersection of patent law and administrative law. Her work examines institutional design issues in innovation policy, with special emphasis on pharmaceutical patents, biologics, and the functioning of the Patent and Trademark Office. She frequently employs empirical methods to analyze patent examination, judicial decision-making, and regulatory processes.

Her publication record demonstrates consistent excellence across top law reviews and peer-reviewed economics journals. Her most recent work explores biologic drug patents, AI-generated inventions, and judicial efficiency in patent cases. Her research shows a clear trajectory from examining patent office operations to broader questions of agency adjudication and regulatory design, with increasing focus on health-related innovation policy.

• Carroll P. Hurd Award for Excellence in Faculty Scholarship (2012)
• National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship
• American Association of University Women Selected Professions Fellowship

Professor Wasserman serves as a Public Member of the Administrative Conference of the United States and previously served on the Board of Directors of the American Law and Economics Association. She is currently a Co-Principal Investigator on an NIH R01 award building a database linking patents to FDA-approved biologics. Her work has been presented at prestigious forums including the Yale/Stanford/Harvard Junior Faculty Forum. She has also contributed to policy discussions through publications for the Administrative Conference of the United States and The Hamilton Project.