Mrinalini Kochupillai joins Hanken as new professor of commercial law

Kochupillai completed her PhD in Germany with a merit-based scholarship from the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, where she then stayed on as the programme director for their master's programme in intellectual property and competition law. Before joining Hanken, she worked as a non-tenured associate professor at the Technical University of Munich. 

Her research focus is on incentivising sustainable agriculture to promote agrobiodiversity conservation, legal and ethical issues in emerging technologies, including AI, and the interconnection between positive mental health and ethical decision making.

“After receiving my ERC grant, I began searching for a new academic home and was immediately impressed by Hanken. The School’s strong commitment to all facets of sustainability deeply resonated with my own values, and the commercial law team showed genuine interest in my research. When I met them, I was struck not only by their diverse expertise, but also by how warm, welcoming, and supportive they were - it felt like the right place to continue my work,” says Kochupillai. 

The ERC grants are the most prestigious personal grants given by the European Commission (EC) to scientists, and they are also very hard to get. According to Kochupillai, the ERC likes innovative, high-risk, high-gain ideas that have the potential of significantly transforming current systems for the greater good. Kochupillai’s innovative idea is to use features of blockchain technology to promote agrobiodiversity conservation and give small farmers equitable economic and social recognition in the global agricultural innovations' ecosystem.  

“At first, the idea seems counterintuitive - blockchain is often criticised for its negative environmental impact. But during a workshop, I had a Eureka moment,” explains Kochupillai. “I realised that specific features of blockchain technology could help address several market and regulatory failures impacting in situ agrobiodiversity conservation. International laws exist to incentivise and reward farmers that are engaged in biodiversity conservation. However, there is a lack of trust among stakeholders, further exacerbated by bureaucratic and regulatory delays.”

Kochupillai’s ERC funded project tries to create a system, ReSeed, by which the know-how and the traditional heterogenous seeds that the farmers have can be traceably and equitably transmitted through the innovation ecosystem, connecting farmers to other farmers, and to scientists. Scientists are also incentivised to report their downstream uses and innovations, back into the system.  

“It's about re-establishing trust in the regulatory mechanism, and among diverse stakeholders, using technology and through active and continuous inputs from farmers and scientists. This way, ReSeed seeks to support regulatory efforts by developing research-backed incentives across all stakeholders, to conserve agrobiodiversity,” Kochupillai sums up.

At Hanken Kochupillai will be teaching intellectual property law, AI and the law, and interdisciplinary research methods. She wishes to also introduce some topics on law and ethics on sustainable agriculture and emerging technologies, particularly artificial intelligence, blockchain, and earth observation. 

Kochupillai is also a passionate advocate of student and staff mental health in universities. While at the Technical University of Munich, Kochupillai frequently took time out to organise and teach an evidence-based mental wellbeing program called the SKY Campus Happiness Program to the university’s bachelor and master students, and to the staff. The programme combines evidence-based breathing techniques derived from yoga, science-backed emotional intelligence training, social connection, and leadership training components.

“A totally new field of study that I am also very interested in is the connection between positive mental health and ethical decision making. Together with a professor in UCLA I've developed a very unusual course on positive mental health and yoga philosophy that I hope to offer to students at Hanken.” 

Mrinalini Kochupillai will be giving her inaugural installation speech at Hanken on 26 February 2026. The talk is tentatively titled “Bridging Inner and Outer Sustainability.” More information about the event and registration here: Inaugural lectures for new professors

Text: Marlene Günsberg
Photo: Private