Paul Cherukuri, PhD

Vice-President for Innovation, Rice University

Dr. Paul Cherukuri is Rice University’s first Vice President for Innovation. As the chief innovation officer, Cherukuri leads Rice’s technology and commercialization infrastructure to translate breakthrough discoveries into inventions for the benefit of society. The primary areas of focus for the Office of Innovation are technology translation, startup creation, commercialization, and entrepreneurship training. Cherukuri oversees Rice’s engagement with the Ion, including the university’s programs in the newly inaugurated innovation district.

Cherukuri is a physicist, chemist and med-tech entrepreneur with over 15 years of experience in academia and the pharmaceutical industry. He earned his bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of Kentucky and his Ph.D. in physical chemistry under Nobel laureate Richard Smalley at Rice.

Before returning to Rice in 2014, Cherukuri was a visiting scholar with Harvard University chemistry Professor George Whitesides and a member of the Department of Experimental Therapeutics faculty at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. He was also co-founder and chief technical officer of MAReNIR Technologies LLC and a senior scientist at Sanofi, where he developed drug products and biomedical devices.

Prior to being VPI, he was executive director of the Institute of Biosciences and Bioengineering. During his six-year tenure in the role, Cherukuri engaged with faculty to develop interdisciplinary translational research partnerships with federal and corporate agencies, garnering nearly $37 million in funding aimed at accelerating the development of new technologies into commercializable products.

Erika Ross Ellison, PhD

Vice President, Global Clinical & Regulatory at ONWARD

Erika recently joined ONWARD from Abbott Neuromodulation, where she was Director, Global Clinical & Applied Research. Previously, as Neuroscience Director at Cala Health, she managed the scientific research program that led to de novo clearance and launch of the company’s neurostimulation technology. Erika also served as Deputy Director, Medical Device Innovation Accelerator, Department of Surgery and Assistant Professor, Department of Neurologic Surgery at Mayo Clinic. Erika holds a BSc in Biology and Business and an MSc in Molecular Biology from the University of Denver, and a PhD in Neuroscience from Mayo Clinic.

Chet Moritz, PhD

Associate Professor in the Division of Physical Therapy, Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Washington 

Chet Moritz received his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, studying the neuromechanics of human movement. A post-doc at the University of Colorado introduced him to the neural control of dexterous hand movements, while a second post-doc at the University of Washington began his interest in neural devices to treat paralysis. He is now the CJ and Elizabeth Hwang endowed professor in the departments Electrical and Computer Engineering, Rehabilitation Medicine and Physiology & Biophysics at the University of Washington in Seattle. He directs the Restorative Technologies Laboratory which develops and tests neurotechnology to improve movement and quality of life after spinal cord injury, stroke, and for children with cerebral palsy. He also serves as the co-director for the Center for Neurotechnology, an interdisciplinary group of engineers, neuroscientists and clinicians developing next generation neural technologies to treat disorders of the nervous system.

Jacob T. Robinson

Associate Professor, Rice University and Founder/CEO of Motif Neurotech

Jacob Robinson is the co-founder and CEO of Motif Neurotech, a neurotechnology company founded in 2022 out of his work on bioelectronics for wireless management of depression, started at Rice University with collaborators at Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston, TX. He is an Associate Professor in Electrical & Computer Engineering and Bioengineering at Rice University, and an Adjunct Associate Professor in Neuroscience at Baylor College of Medicine. His research group uses nanofabrication technology to create devices that can manipulate and monitor neural circuit activity.  He received a B.S. in Physics from UCLA in 2003, a Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Cornell University in 2008 and completed his Postdoctoral research in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University. In 2012, he joined the ECE and BioE departments at Rice. Dr. Robinson is the recipient of the DARPA Young Faculty Award, the Materials Today Rising Star Award, the Charles Duncan Award for Outstanding Academic Achievement, and is a Senior Member of IEEE. He previously served as the co-chair of the IEEE Brain Initiative and a core member of the IEEE Brain Neuroethics working group.