Emma Whitelaw FAA is an eminent molecular biologist and NHMRC Australia Fellow at the Queensland Institute of Medical Research and is among Australia's leading researchers of epigenetics^{[according to whom?]}. Whitelaw was the first to demonstrate epigenetic inheritance in mammals.^[1] She now currently works at La Trobe University in Australia.

Whitelaw performed undergraduate studies at the Australian National University and obtained her D.Phil. from University of Oxford.^[2] She has worked for 15 years in London and Oxford, and since 1991 in Australia.^[2] She heads the Department of Population Studies and Human Genetics, dedicated to the study of epigenetics and mammalian gene expression, at Queensland Institute of Medical Research.^[3]

Whitelaw has worked extensively on the control of gene expression in higher eukaryotes. In 1999 Whitelaw, together with her co-workers made the first-ever demonstration of epigenetic inheritance in mammals.^[4]

In 2008, Whitelaw was awarded a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Australia Fellowship and in 2011 she became a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science.^[5] In 2011, she received the Jubilee Medal from the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology for work on the transgenerational inheritance of epigenetic marks.^[6]