Yann Joly

Prof. Joly has acquired international recognition in health law, intellectual property and bioethics in the context of modern medicine. Since 2009, he has made a significant contribution to the research, development and successful implementation of controlled access mechanisms for two large academic consortia in the field of genomics: The International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) (for which he is currently the Data Access Officer) and the International Human Epigenome Consortium (IHEC). These mechanisms are now used by emerging organizations and consortia as models. He is also the author of over 120 peer-reviewed publications in top legal, ethical and scientific journals, as well as numerous book chapters and two books. For the past decade, he has served as a legal and ethical consultant to numerous national and international organizations, companies and para-governmental organizations. He was invited to provide his expert testimony on the topic of genetic discrimination before the Council of Europe (2007) and the Canadian Senate Standing Committee on Human Rights (2014). He was also a Member of the 2007-2009 panel of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences on the return on investments in health research. In 2012, he received the “Innovation Merit” award of the Quebec Bar (Lawyer Emeritus) for his contribution to the fields of privacy and biomedicine. In 2016, Prof. Joly was the recipient of the McGill University Department of Human Genetics’ Teaching Excellence Award and, in 2017, he became a fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences (CAHS).