Professor Surinder Kaur Verma is the Director of the Indian Law Institute in New Delhi (1998-now) and President of the International Association for the Advancement of Teaching and Research Intellectual Property (ATRIP), Munich, Germany (under WIPO Academy, Geneva).
Prof Verma is a graduate of the University of Jabalpur (B.Sc., B.Ed. and M.A. (Psychology)), the Banaras Hindu University (LL.B., LL.M.) and Law School, Berkeley, University of California (LL.M.). She received her doctorate from Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass (S.J.D.)
Prof Verma has lectured at numerous universities, including Banaras Hindu University (1968-1975), Delhi University (1975-1987), University of Zambia, Lusaka (1982-1985), S.P. Mahila University, Tirupati (1993), Max-Planck-Institut fur Patentrecht, Munich, Germany (1994 and 1997), University of Alberta and University of Calgary, Canada (1998) and University of Washington (2001). She was also Dean of the Faculty of Law for the University of Delhi (1997-1998).
She specializes in International Trade Law, Intellectual Property Rights Law and Public International Law.
Prof Verma is a Life Member of the Indian Society of International Law (New Delhi), and a Member of the Indian Council of World Affairs (New Delhi). She is a Member of the Expert Group on Data Protection Legislation, Department of Information Technology, Government of India and a Member of the Technical Committee on Trade in Education Services under the WTO Regime (2001-now). She is also a member of the Review Steering Group (PRSG) for the project entitled "Providing of e-Enabled support to Ministry of Information Technology initiatives for IPR Awareness and Services in Electronics and Information Technology" (IIPD New Delhi) and a member of the Environmental Information System (ENVIS) Advisory Committee, Ministry Environment & Forests, Government of India.
She has published about eighty research articles, six books and a number of book reviews. Her most recent articles include Intellectual Property : International Aspects (Sangal and Ponnuswami (ed.), Intellectual Property Law ,1994, p.120); The Biodiversity Convention and Intellectual Property Rights : A Study in Sustainable Development (India Quarterly, LI (1: 1995), p. 5) and TRIPs and Plant Variety Protection in Developing Countries (17 European Intellectual Property Review, 1995, p. 281).
She has also attended many conferences, seminars, workshops and symposia nationally and internationally. She delivered a talk on Convention on Bio-diversity and related Intellectual Property Rights Issues at AIPPI Japan in (2001) and organized the ATRIP Congress 2002 in New Delhi. She also participated in the International Conference on International Public Goods and Transfer of Technology after the TRIPS Agreement of 1994 at Duke University, School of Law, Durham, North Carolina, USA (2003).