Robin L. Rasor a.k.a. Ruth Rasor (b. 1956) is a technology transfer professional with an MS in genetics who serves as the Executive director of the

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

Licensing & Ventures office.

Background and career

Rasor received her BS in bacteriology from

Ohio Wesleyan University Ohio Wesleyan University (OWU) is a private liberal arts college in Delaware, Ohio. It was founded in 1842 by methodist leaders and Central Ohio residents as a nonsectarian institution, and is a member of the Ohio Five – a consortium ...

and her MS in genetics from

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

. She worked at

Battelle Memorial Institute Battelle Memorial Institute (more widely known as simply Battelle) is a private nonprofit applied science and technology development company headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. Battelle is a charitable trust organized as a nonprofit corporation u ...

and in various roles in technology licensing at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

, rising to become its Managing Director by 2014. In 2016, she was named to head the

br>Office of Licensing and Ventures
Rasor 0001

Senate testimony

On April 3, 2019, Rasor and three other female inventors testified before Chairman Thom Tillis and the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

subcommittee on intellectual property on "lost" female inventors and scientific trailblazers. Her testimony pointed out the gender disparities in the

Patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...

process, and suggested solutions including academic, nonprofit, and government interventions to address this problem. Rasor also proposed that a high percentage of female inventors in Duke's leadership structure led to a culture of innovation at the school.

Awards and honors

* President of the Association of University Technology Managers, 2011-2013 * Co-recipient of

AACR Awards The American Association for Cancer Research gives several annual awards for significant contributions to the field of cancer research. AACR Award for Lifetime Achievement in Cancer Research This award recognizes prodigious scientists that have ...

Team Award, 2007 * President's Award for Service to AUTM, 2005

References

1956 births Living people Technology transfer Licensing Ohio State University alumni Women biologists Women inventors {{Geneticist-stub