OTT Staff
Meet Our Team
Patricia Stepp, Ph.D.
Assistant Vice President for Technology Transfer
Sharnae Gilmore, MA
Administrative Operations Specialist
Intellectual Property Team
Assists Rice researchers with the invention disclosure and review process. Also assists with patent prosecution and Intellectual Property (IP) Portfolio Management.
Neha Malik, Ph.D.
Assistant Director, Intellectual Property
Megan Schutzbach-Horton, Ph.D.
Intellectual Property Manager
JeQuan Smith
Patent Docket & Compliance Assistant
Andrew Baines
Intellectual Property & Licensing Associate
Peng Wei, Ph.D.
Intellectual Property Specialist
Licensing Team
Negotiates license, option and inter-institutional agreements as well as markets available technologies to potential partners.
Andrew Castillo, Ph.D.
Assistant Director, Licensing
Mike Cato, Ph.D.
Senior Licensing Associate
Sean Bittner, Ph.D.
Licensing Associate - Physical Sciences
Industrial Contracts Team
Negotiates various agreements to support research at Rice including; confidentiality, materials transfer, data use, collaboration and industry-sponsored research agreements.
Matthew Patterson, Ph.D.
Assistant Director, Contracts
Karen Bannerman
Industrial Contracts Specialist III
Sam Kirchhoff, J.D.
Industrial Contracts Specialist II
Finance Team
Manages the office budget, license compliance, patent expenditures, and distribution of licensing revenue.
Nicole Corali Rogers, MBA, CRA
Finance Manager
Robin Bryant
Finance & Compliance Administrator
Aaron Daniels
Database Administrator