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Professor Collins joined the faculty of the Indiana University Maurer School of Law in 2004, bringing a diverse range of academic and professional experience to his scholarship and teaching. Putting his bachelors degree in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry and his year of clerking on the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to good use, Professor Collins teaches and writes about intellectual property law. Most recently he has written articles clustered around two topics in patent law: the extent to which newly invented modes of human thought should be treated as a propertizable resource and the reach of patent rights into after-arising technologies.
Having earned a masters degree in Architecture and worked for five years as a project architect with Bernard Tschumi Architects, Professor Collins is also interested in the intersection of law and architecture. In particular, he is interested in the mechanisms through which the built environment functions as a "regulator" of individual behavior and social structure. While still a practicing architect, he taught courses related to this topic, including a seminar in twentieth century architectural history at Yale College (entitled Envisioning Architecture/Envisioning Society) and studio design courses at the Columbia Graduate School of Architecture. He continues to pursue this topic in both his scholarship and his seminar in Law and Architecture at the Maurer School.
In 2007, Collins earned the IU Trustees Teaching Award for his excellence in the classroom.
