ACTING DEPUTY DIRECTOR FOR ENGINEERING AT NSF
Barry Johnson
Barry W. Johnson currently serves as Acting Deputy Assistant Director for the Directorate for Engineering at NSF. Barry W. Johnson was named Division Director of the Division of Industrial Innovation and Partnerships (IIP) in the Directorate for Engineering at NSF in March 2015. Prior to that, Barry was the Senior Associate Dean in the School of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Virginia.
ACTING DIVISION DIRECTOR FOR ENGINEERING AT NSF
Graciela Narcho
Graciela (Gracie) Narcho currently serves as the Acting Division Director for the Division of Industrial Innovation and Partnerships (IIP) at NSF. Gracie was named the Deputy Division Director for IIP and the Director of the Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization and Small Business Research and Development at the National Science Foundation (NSF) in March of 2015.
SENIOR SBIR/STTR PROGRAM DIRECTOR
Ben Schrag
Ben Schrag is the Senior Program Director for the small business programs at the National Science Foundation. He joined the NSF as a Program Director in 2009 and leads the Advanced Materials and Instrumentation portfolio in the Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer programs.
SBIR/STTR PROGRAM DIRECTOR
Henry Ahn
Henry Ahn joined the National Science Foundation in July 2016 as an SBIR/STTR Program Director. Prior to joining NSF, Henry managed seed/early stage investment programs for TEDCO for 12 years including Technology Commercialization Fund, TEDCO’s flagship seed funding program for technology-based companies in Maryland.
SBIR/STTR PROGRAM DIRECTOR
Peter Atherton
Peter Atherton joined the National Science Foundation in 2013 as a Program Director for Information and Communication Technologies. Prior to joining NSF, he was Chief Technology Officer at MIKOH Corporation, a company he founded in Sydney, Australia.
SBIR/STTR PROGRAM DIRECTOR
Prakash Balan
Prakash Balan joined the SBIR/STTR Program at NSF in 2011 as a Program Director leading the Chemical and Environmental Technology funding focus. He has 20 years of broad experience spanning R&D, new technology development and commercialization in both large and small entrepreneurial company environments.
SBIR/STTR PROGRAM DIRECTOR
Glenn Larsen
Glenn Larsen joined the National Science Foundation in 1987 as the computer systems engineer for NSF’s Directorate for Engineering. In 2005, he became program director for the Industry/University Cooperative Research Center’s (I/UCRC) Fundamental Research program and in 2010 joined the SBIR/STTR Program as Program Director for Education Applications and Information Technology.
SBIR/STTR PROGRAM DIRECTOR
Debasis Majumdar
Debasis Majumdar joined the National Science Foundation as a Program Director in the Industrial Innovation and Partnerships Division of the Engineering Directorate in 2015. Prior to joining NSF, he was a Research Associate at Saint-Gobain and a Senior Principal Scientist at Eastman Kodak Company, spanning an industrial career of over 30 years.
SBIR/STTR PROGRAM DIRECTOR
Rajesh Mehta
Rajesh Mehta joined the National Science Foundation as a SBIR/STTR Program Director for Nanotechnology, Advanced Materials and Manufacturing in August 2012. Prior to joining NSF, he was a senior research technologist at Kodak where his 26-year career spanned work at Kodak Research Laboratories, and Manufacturing Research and Engineering Organization.
SBIR/STTR PROGRAM DIRECTOR
Murali Nair
Murali S. Nair is a Program Director in the areas of Electronic Hardware, Robotics, and Wireless Technologies with the SBIR/STTR Program. Prior to joining NSF, he was the Founder CEO of a Bluetooth wireless product company. In this capacity, he raised equity capital for worldwide operations in the U.S., China and India.
SBIR/STTR PROGRAM DIRECTOR
Rick Schwerdtfeger
Carl (Rick) Schwerdtfeger joined the National Science Foundation in August 2016 as the SBIR/STTR Program Director for the Semiconductors and Photonics, and Internet of Things (IoT) portfolios. Prior to joining NSF, Rick was the CTO and Co-Founder of the Advanced RenewableEnergy Company, a clean-tech and semiconductor equipment company, where he led the technology development and customer deployment of nearly $200MM of equipment in the first 4 years.
SBIR/STTR PROGRAM DIRECTOR
Ruth Shuman
Ruth Shuman joined the National Science Foundation in August 2009 as a Program Director for Biological Technologies in the SBIR/STTR Program. Before coming to NSF, she was the founder, president, and CEO of a successful venture-backed life science company, Gentra Systems, Inc.
SBIR/STTR PROGRAM DIRECTOR
Jesus Soriano
Jesus Soriano joined the NSF in February 2012 as a Program Director in Smart Health and Biomedical Technologies after 20 years of international experience in executive leadership in the biopharmaceutical and non-profit sectors, start-up formation and funding, technology commercialization, and academic teaching and research.