Niels Philipsen studied Economics (with a specialization in competition policy) at Maastricht University. He obtained his Ph.D. degree on the thesis “Regulation of and by pharmacists in the Netherlands and Belgium: An economic approach” at the UM Faculty of Law. Philipsen is Associate Professor in Law and Economics at the Maastricht European Institute for Transnational Legal Research (METRO), where he is also Vice-Director (0.8 FTE). In July 2016 he was appointed extraordinary Professor of Shifts in Private and Public Regulation at the Erasmus School of Law (0.2 FTE); and in November 2016 he was appointed Adjunct Professor of the School of Law and Economics at the China University of Political Science and Law. Philipsen conducted research for inter alia the European Commission, OECD, several Dutch ministries and the International Bar Association. He also worked as temporary agent for the European Commission (DG Competition), and was a visiting researcher at Peking University and the University of Illinois. From January 2013 until April 2016 he was a member of the FP7 Collaborative Project EFFACE (EU action to fight environmental crime).  Philipsen wrote several books and articles.