Patricia Stepp is the assistant vice president for Technology Transfer at Rice University. She leads the strategic planning and operations of the Office of Technology Transfer (OTT). Her vision is to support Rice’s entrepreneurship and innovation community by transforming research innovations into products and services with real-world societal impact. To transform an initial concept into a market-ready innovation, Rice’s OTT manages a multi-stage pipeline that takes innovation out of the lab, secures IP protection, and oversees commercial strategy and industrial collaboration. She is also on the board of directors for AUTM, the non-profit that educates, promotes, and inspires professionals to support the development of academic research that changes the world and drives innovation forward. She is a registered patent agent, has a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Arkansas, and a PhD in biomedical engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology.