Dinesh Divakaran has become director for digital innovations at Duke University's TTO, building on four years as associate director.

Dinesh Divakaran (pictured) has been promoted to director for digital innovations at Duke University’s Office of Licensing and Ventures. Divakaran started the role earlier this month, following almost four years with the TTO as an associate director for digital innovations from late 2015. His new remit will involve steering the creation of spinouts, licensing agreements and collaborations to mature digital innovations from the university and its Duke Health system. Divakaran is a serving adviser, mentor and reviewer for nonprofit entrepreneurship program NC Idea, which assists startups in the state of North Carolina through grant awards and programming. He also remains a grant submission reviewer and panellist for US government-owned research agencies National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation, according to LinkedIn. Divakaran was previously adjunct assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at North Carolina State University from early 2014 until late 2015, helping faculty and researchers prepare grant proposals for their R&D projects. He spent almost four years with the North Carolina government’s state office of research organisation from 2012 until 2015, starting out as a licensing associate in 2012 before a promotion to associate director in the following year. Divakaran’s other career highlights include 19 months with Texas A&M University System from 2010 until 2012 as a licensing assistant within the Office of Technology Commercialization. He worked for University of South Florida’s Connect program as a tech transfer business development analyst from 2008 until 2009, later co-founding a USF-backed incubator for startups in the Tampa Bay area. Divakaran had already been with USF for almost a decade in a series of faculty roles, latterly serving as adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering from 2007 until 2009.

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