Dear Rice community,
When I became president in 2022, Rice committed to the goal of being a leader within the Houston and global innovation ecosystems. For that reason, one of our first priority hires was to name a visionary and energetic scientist and entrepreneur as our inaugural vice president for innovation and chief innovation officer at Rice. We were extraordinarily fortunate to appoint our colleague and alumnus, Paul Cherukuri, who was then the executive director of Rice’s Institute of Biosciences and Bioengineering, to this role.
In short order, Paul partnered with Rice’s senior leadership, deans, faculty and staff as well as external collaborators and funders to bolster the university’s technology and commercialization infrastructure and to translate breakthrough discoveries into inventions for societal benefit. Today, I write to share that Paul will leave Rice at the end of September to become the University of Virginia’s Donna and Richard Tadler University Professor of Entrepreneurship and its first chief innovation officer, a testament to his remarkable leadership capabilities and talents.
Paul has greatly enjoyed designing and championing the innovation enterprise with Rice faculty and students, and his vision and leadership have left a lasting mark. We are fortunate to have had his steady hand at the helm during this pivotal chapter in our university’s history.
Under Paul’s leadership, the university launched pathbreaking initiatives such as the Rice Biotech Launch Pad, a Houston-based accelerator focused on expediting the translation of the university’s health and medical technology discoveries into cures, and RBL LLC, a biotech venture studio strategically placed in the Texas Medical Center’s Helix Park to rapidly commercialize lifesaving technologies from the Launch Pad.
Working alongside Rice’s leading faculty, Paul forged a $12.5 million, first-of-its-kind partnership with Woodside Energy to transform greenhouse gases into advanced nanomaterials for next-generation batteries and transistors. Now in its second year, the Woodside-Rice Decarbonization Accelerator is fast-tracking breakthrough technologies from Rice labs into the global market, solidifying Rice and Houston as leaders in the energy transition revolution.
He also led the creation of the Rice Nexus, the university’s flagship innovation hub in the Ion District designed to help faculty, students and alumni founders turn breakthrough research into high-impact startups. Opened earlier this year and spanning 10,000 square feet across two floors of the Ion building, the state-of-the-art facility provides the space, resources and industry connections needed to scale new ventures, with artificial intelligence as a central pillar of its innovation strategy. More broadly, Paul reshaped the Ion’s strategy, embedding Rice faculty and students into the core of Houston’s innovation district, and launched strategic investment programs to power the university’s innovation engine.
Soon, we will launch an international search for the next vice president for innovation and share details on that process with the community. A search committee will be appointed to help us identify the next leader for the innovation enterprise, a responsibility that is particularly important for our impact and future.
I am grateful to Adrian Trömel, associate vice president for innovation strategy and investments at Rice, who will serve as interim vice president for innovation and chief innovation officer during the search.
Please join me in thanking Paul for his energetic leadership and wishing him and his family the very best in his future successes.
Warmly,
Reginald DesRoches, President