Michael Richard Ulrich, JD, MPH

Michael R. Ulrich is an Associate Professor of Health Law, Ethics, & Human Rights at Boston University’s School of Public Health and School of Law. His research focuses on the intersection of public health, constitutional law, bioethics, and social justice, with an emphasis on the role of law in the health outcomes of marginalized and underserved populations. Professor Ulrich’s scholarship has appeared in national and international journals, including the Stanford Law Review, New England Journal of Medicine, Hastings Law Journal, British Medical Journal, Cardozo Law Review, American Journal of Bioethics, SMU Law Review, Health Affairs, Yale Journal of Law & Feminism, American Journal of Law & Medicine, and the Yale Journal of Health Policy, Law, & Ethics. He also served as guest editor for an issue of the Journal of Law, Medicine, & Ethics on the Second Amendment and gun violence, and coauthored the leading casebook Public Health Law. Professor Ulrich’s research has received numerous awards and recognition, having been selected as a Public Law Junior Scholar by the American Constitution Society and a Health Law Scholar by the American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics, and presented with the Translational Science Award by the Research Society for the Prevention of Firearm-Related Harms. He has also been given multiple “Excellence in Teaching” awards for his work in the classroom.

Professor Ulrich has coauthored or been cited in amicus briefs at every level of the judiciary, including the United States Supreme Court, on the Second Amendment, LGBTQ+ rights, reproductive justice, and contagious disease control. As an interdisciplinary scholar seeking to reach a wide range of audiences, Professor Ulrich has shared his expertise on television programs for ABC News, CBS News, Fox News, and NBC News; he has been a guest on NPR and several podcasts; and he has written for or been quoted or cited in publications such as the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the Boston Globe, USA Today, NPR, Bloomberg Law, The Hill, and Slate. Professor Ulrich has appointments and affiliations with the Boston University Center for Health Law, Ethics, & Human Rights, the Boston University Center on Emerging Infectious Diseases, and the Yale Law School Solomon Center for Health Law & Policy, while also serving as the Director for the Human Rights and Social Justice Certificate and as a member of the Boston University School of Law’s Health Law Program Committee.

Prior to joining Boston University, Professor Ulrich was a Research Scholar, Senior Fellow in Health Law, & Lecturer in Law at Yale Law School, where he helped launch and run the Solomon Center for Health Law & Policy at Yale Law School with Faculty Director Abbe Gluck. He has also worked as a bioethicist in the Division of AIDS at the National Institutes of Health.