Kultaran Chohan

Bio

As Assistant Vice Chancellor of Technology Licensing, Kultaran provides strategic leadership, advice, and support around innovation, research commercialization, intellectual property management & protection, and engagement with the research and business communities.

Kultaran leads the NC State Office of Research Commercialization’s team of licensing professionals in their role to facilitate commercialization of NC State’s entire research discovery/IP portfolio. He personally manages the commercialization of a select portfolio of NC State’s life science technologies. He has extensive experience and expertise in the cradle to grave approach for technology commercialization including commercial evaluation of early stage technologies, competitive landscape analysis, developing IP strategy/protection, IP assessment including patentability & FTO, and developing commercialization/licensing strategies for various types of IP assets. He has personally negotiated, drafted, and executed over 150 IP license agreements, joint development and collaboration agreements, and IP management agreements. He has also helped in facilitating the formation of numerous university based startup companies that were formed with the primary goal to de-risk, develop, and commercialize early stage research discoveries (and the related IP).

Kultaran has served as a reviewer/panelist with the Small Business Innovation Research and Technology Transfer (SBIR/STTR) grant programs at both the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. He has also served as a Technology Transfer Specialist Reviewer for the Peer Reviewed Medical Research Program (PRMRP) which is part of the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP).

Kultaran earned a Ph.D. in Genetics from NC State University, a MS in biology from University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and a LL.M. in Intellectual Property and Technology Law from Washington University in St. Louis, MO. He is a member of the New York Bar Association and is licensed as an attorney in New York. He is a Certified Licensing Professional and joined ORC in 2011.

In his spare time, he loves spending time with his family, go camping, and loves cooking.