After more than a decade of outstanding leadership at Rice University, Paul Cherukuri, the university’s top innovation executive, will be leaving his post to accept a position at the University of Virginia.
Cherukuri, Rice’s inaugural vice president for innovation and chief innovation officer, plans to depart from his position at the of end September to become UVA’s Donna and Richard Tadler University Professor of Entrepreneurship and their first chief innovation officer.
A physicist, chemist and medical technology entrepreneur, Cherukuri has been a key member of President Reginald DesRoches’ leadership team since 2022, responsible for Rice’s technology and commercialization infrastructure to translate breakthrough discoveries into inventions for societal benefit. The then-new role underscored DesRoches’ commitment for Rice to be a leader within the Houston and global innovation ecosystems.
Under Cherukuri’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 in the Texas Medical Center’s Helix Park dedicated to rapidly commercializing lifesaving medical technologies from the Launch Pad.
Working alongside Rice’s leading faculty, Cherukuri 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, Cherukuri 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.
“We appointed Paul to build an ambitious and high-functioning innovation operation, and he has succeeded remarkably in short order,” DesRoches said. “In every area, from technology translation and startup creation to commercialization and entrepreneurship training, he has led the effort to vastly improve our structure, operations and relationships. He has contributed immensely both to our strategies and their implementation across numerous areas, and we’ll miss him greatly.”
In his role, Cherukuri also oversaw Rice’s programs in and engagement with the Ion, where he recently led the announcement of a partnership with Greentown Labs, North America’s largest climate tech incubator, to support climate solutions in the district.
“The connections between Rice and the University of Virginia are long and dynamic,” Cherukuri said. “For example, Rice’s first president, Edgar Odell Lovett, was a graduate of UVA, and both institutions, deeply rooted in their communities and regions, have been drivers of innovation and progress for over a century and longer. I am proud of the relentless innovative spirit we have built for Rice in Houston and around the world. I look forward to bringing new energy and vision to UVA’s efforts in this critical space for our country, its success and future.”
From 2016 to 2022, Cherukuri was executive director of Rice’s Institute of Biosciences and Bioengineering. In that role, he collaborated 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 commercial products.
Cherukuri, an immigrant from India, graduated from the University of Kentucky with a bachelor's degree in physics and earned a doctorate in physical chemistry under Nobel laureate Richard Smalley at Rice.
His last day as a vice president at Rice will be Sept. 30.
The university will soon launch an international search for its next vice president for innovation and chief innovation officer. Adrian Trömel, associate vice president for innovation strategy and investments at Rice, will serve as interim vice president for innovation and chief innovation officer.