Olivia Merckx, PhD Candidate (O.F.M.)

Olivia is a PhD candidate and tutor at the Department of Private Law at Maastricht University. Her PhD research project is in joint collaboration with the MUMC+ hospital and focuses on the various frameworks, legal, technical and ethical that govern the use of health data. The aim is to understand the different how health data for primary use is governed at the European level as well as at the Dutch, and to provide actionable solutions to mitigate the ambiguity and confusion. She is conducting her research under the supervision of Professor Gijs van Dijck and Dr Mindy Dufforc. Since joining the faculty in September 2025, she has been teaching Skills as part of the Legal Challenges course. She is also a member of the Law & Tech Lab. 

Olivia received both her bachelor's degree (LLB) in Law in Society and her master's degree (LLM) in International Technology Law at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam. She received a second master's degree (MSc) in Bioethics at Harvard Medical School.