Professor Julia Powles researches and teaches in the areas of privacy, intellectual property, internet governance, and the law and politics of data, automation, and artificial intelligence. She is currently the Executive Director of the UCLA Institute for Technology, Law & Policy at the UCLA School of Law and UCLA Samueli School of Engineering, and Tech Policy Lead for UCLA DataX. Professor Powles is a Senior Honorary Research Fellow and Adjunct Senior Research Fellow at the UWA Graduate School of Education and a Research Associate at the University of Cambridge Judge Business School and Faculty of Law.

Prior to joining UCLA, Professor Powles was the founding Director of the UWA Tech & Policy Lab and Associate Professor of Law and Technology at the University of Western Australia. She previously held academic appointments at Cornell Tech, New York University, and the University of Cambridge, and worked at The Guardian, World Intellectual Property Organization, and MinterEllison. 

Professor Powles earned a Ph.D. in Law from the University of Cambridge and a Bachelor of Civil Law from the University of Oxford. She also holds Bachelor’s degrees in Science and Law, with First Class Honours, from the Australian National University and University of Western Australia. She has received numerous honours and awards, including the Commonwealth Scholarship, Cambridge Australia Poynton Scholarship, Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition Scholarship, John Norman Barker Prize in Law, Yale Poynter Fellowship, WA 40Under40 Business Leaders Award, WYNG-Hatton Trust Fellowship, and two Citations for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning. After law school, she clerked for the Honourable Justice Garry Downes AM KC on the Federal Court of Australia and Commonwealth Administrative Appeals Tribunal.  

Professor Powles leads bold, investigative research programs at the edge of tech development and tech accountability. She has a strong track-record in raising research income, leading research grants, and providing graduate research training. Her work has been published in leading journals including International Data Privacy Law, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Health and Technology, and Fordham Law Review, as well as popular publications such as the New Yorker, Guardian, Financial Times, OneZero, Slate, and WIRED, among others. With Professor Frank Pasquale, she is Series Editor of Oxford Technology Law and Policy (Oxford University Press). Professor Powles has served on Federal and State Advisory Committees on Generative AI in Education, AI and Copyright, Privacy and Responsible Information Sharing, Responsible AI, and Robotics.

Professor Powles is committed to providing high-quality graduate research training and supervision, and welcomes approaches from master’s and doctoral candidates in law, engineering, computer science, and social sciences.

• Co-Founder and Director, UWA Tech & Policy Lab, 2020-25
• Expert Member, Copyright and AI Reference Group, Attorney General’s Department, Australian Government, 2024-25 (appointed by Commercial and Copyright Law Branch)
• Expert Member, UWA GenAI Expert Advisory Panel, 2024-25 (appointed by Academic Board)
• Expert Member, UWA Law School GenAI Working Group, 2024-25
• Expert Member, UWA Research Data Committee (Government Liaison), 2023-25 (appointed by Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research)
• Independent Expert Member, Privacy and Responsible Information
  Sharing (PRIS) Implementation Steering Committee, Government of Western Australia, 2023-25 (appointed by Director General, Department of Premier & Cabinet, Emily Roper)
• Chair, PRIS Universities Network (Curtin- ECU- Murdoch- Notre Dame-UWA), 2023-25 (invited by Western Australian Government)
• Elected Member, UWA Law School Research Committee, 2023-25
• Expert Advisory Panel Member, Inquiry into the Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence in the Australian Education System, Standing Committee on Employment, Education and Training, Parliament of Australia, 2023-24 (appointed by Chair, Hon Lisa Chesters MP)
• Co-Chair, International Tech Crimes Summit, 2023 (Perth) and 2024 (Los Angeles)
• Chair, UWA Research Integrity Panel under the Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research (appointed by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research)
• Expert Member, National Robotics Strategy Advisory Committee, Australian Government Department of Industry, Science and Resources, 2022-24 (appointed by Minister Ed Husic MP)
• Expert Member, Think Tank on Responsible AI, Australian Government National Artificial Intelligence Centre, 2022-24 (appointed by National AI Centre)
• Initiative Leader, UWA Research Pursuit, Seek Wisdom Beyond Myths of Automation, 2022-24 (selected by University committee)
• Series Editor, Oxford Technology Law and Policy Book Series (Oxford University Press), 2022-ongoing (invited by OUP)
• Co-Chair, Australian Academy of Science Expert Working Group on Data in Professional Sport, 2020-22
• Inaugural Reference Group Member, UWA Data Institute, 2020-21
• Co-Chair, ACM/AAAI International Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Ethics and Society, 2020 (New York)
• Group Leader, Tech & the Public Interest Research Group, 2019-20
• Independent Expert Member, Data Sharing and Linkage Working Group, Government of Western Australia, 2019 (appointed by Director General, Department of Premier & Cabinet, Darren Foster)
• Innovation Fellow, IQX, 2019
• Inaugural Be Inspired Appointment, UWA Law School, 2019
• Rapporteur, Council of Europe MSI-AUT Committee of Experts on Human Rights Dimensions of Automated Data Processing and Different Forms of Artificial Intelligence, 2018
• Co-Chair, Conference on Trade Secrets and Algorithmic Systems, 2018 (New York)
• Co-Convenor, Digital Life Seminar Series, Cornell Tech, 2018 
• Co-Founder and Co-Chair, ACM/IEEE International Workshop on Legal and Technical Issues in Cloud and Pervasive Computing, 2017 (Vancouver) and 2018 (Singapore) 
• Editorial Board Member, Journal of Law and the Biosciences (Oxford University Press), 2016-present
• Co-Convenor, Centre for Intellectual Property & Information Law Seminar Series, University of Cambridge, 2011-15