Chris Holman joined the UMKC faculty in 2005, and his primary research focus lies at the intersection of intellectual property and biotechnology. He has published numerous articles in law reviews and scientific publications such as Science, Cell and Nature Biotechnology, and has authored amicus briefs in a number of important biotechnology patent cases at the Supreme Court and Federal Circuit. In 2008 he was awarded the Daniel L Brenner Faculty Publishing Award for an influential law review article on human gene patent litigation.
Professor Holman has taught classes in patent law, copyright law, intellectual property survey, antitrust, biotechnology and pharmaceutical law, and law science and technology. He is a faculty advisor for the law school’s Intellectual Property Emphasis Area, and helps oversee the IP clinic.
Prior to becoming a law professor, Holman served as vice-president of intellectual property and patent counsel at several Silicon Valley biotechnology companies and worked as an associate at a major intellectual property law firm. He was also a tenure-track chemistry professor in the California State University system. A native of California, Holman received his Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology from the University of California at Davis, and engaged in post-doctoral drug discovery research at Roche Biosciences in Palo Alto, Calif. He then attended law school at UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall, during which time he was an associate editor for the Berkeley Technology Law Journal and served as a full-time judicial extern in federal court in the Northern District of California.
