Werner Kuhr
Innovation Ecosystem Director
Werner G. Kuhr serves as Associate Vice President of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Texas Tech University, where he oversees TTU’s robust innovation ecosystem, which includes the Office of Research Commercialization (ORC), The Innovation Hub, the Northwest Texas Small Business Development Center (NWTSBDC), and he serves on the Board of the Texas Tech Research Park, Inc. (TTRP; a separate 501(c)(3) entity). The TTU innovation ecosystem supports TTU and Texas Tech Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC) faculty, staff, and student entrepreneurs, as well as the entire West Texas region. Reporting to the Vice President for Research and Innovation (VP), the AVP I&E works closely with the VP, strategizing, energizing, and leading a focused Research and Innovation Office, and driving economic engagement with TTU’s innovation ecosystem. The AVP I&E serves as TTU’s primary point of contact for the university’s innovation, entrepreneurship, and economic development initiatives.
Previously, he served as Director of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, CO. He led both academic initiatives in entrepreneurship (via the McNeil Center for E&I) and technology commercialization efforts (via the Beck Venture Center) for the university. Prior to that, he served as the Technology Commercialization Director and the founding Director of the Stevens Venture Center at Stevens Institute of Technology. Prior to this, he was Vice President of Research at ZettaCore, Inc., a company he co-founded and helped sell into the semiconductor and printed circuit board industry. ZettaCore was based on research performed while he was Professor of Chemistry at the University of California, Riverside. At UC Riverside, he ran a research program that graduated 25 Ph.D. and MS students in fifteen years, published roughly 100 papers (H-index =60) and received extramural funding in excess of $8 million. He has participated in the formation of five start-up technology companies, several of which were based on translation research in protein diagnostics and genomics. Altogether, he helped raise roughly $95M in venture capital and return over $400M in equity to investors and shareholders.
