Virginia Tech Intellectual Properties (VTIP)

//Justice (ret.) Elizabeth A. McClanahan serves as CEO of the Virginia Tech Foundation, an independent nonstock corporation established in 1948 for the sole purpose of managing Virginia Tech’s endowment and real estate portfolio. Its wholly owned for-profit subsidiary, Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center, is a research park that catalyzes commercialization and industry collaboration.<br/>Justice McClanahan began her legal career in private practice at Penn, Stuart & Eskridge, where she later became a shareholder, director, and management committee member. She was admitted to six state bars – Virginia, District of Columbia, Maryland, West Virginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky – and earned a Martindale-Hubbell AV Rating. After practicing in the private sector, Justice McClanahan served as Virginia's Chief Deputy Attorney General and on the Court of Appeals of Virginia. Her legal career culminated with her appointment by the Virginia General Assembly to Justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia.<br/>Before joining the Virginia Tech Foundation, Justice McClanahan served as president and dean at Appalachian School of Law in Buchanan County, Virginia, her home county. She has served as chair of the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia; vice rector of her alma mater, the College of William and Mary; Williamson Fellow at William and Mary College of Law; Street Memorial Distinguished Visitor in Real Estate Law at Appalachian School of Law; El Paso Natural Gas Law Fellow at the University of Colorado School of Law; and on the faculty for the Summer Management Program at Wake Forest School of Business and Accountancy. She is an adjunct professor of finance at Virginia Tech’s Pamplin College of Business, where she teaches legal, financing, and ethical Issues for entrepreneurs.<br/>Justice McClanahan is an active member on several boards of directors, including the Virginia Chamber of Commerce; the Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine; Carilion Clinic; and Delta Dental of Virginia. She has received civic and professional awards, including Virginia Jaycees Outstanding Young Virginian; the Roanoke Blacksburg Technology Council Ruby Award; Virginia Business Power 500; David M. Young Award, Virginia Oil & Gas Association; Virginia Lawyers Media “Influential Women of Virginia”; Virginia Business Legal Elite; the William Skelton Extension Leadership Award, Virginia Cooperative Extension; and The Top 50 Women Chief Executive Officers, Women We Admire.

//Daniel “Dan” Sui is an internationally renowned geographer/GIScientist with research interests focusing on GIS-based spatial analysis and modeling for urban, environmental, and public health applications. As chief research and innovation officer, he is responsible for supporting and growing Virginia Tech’s research portfolio that includes extramural funding.<br/>Sui is an established researcher who has been published in more than 230 scholarly publications covering various interdisciplinary topics and who frequently delivers keynote speeches, endowed, or invited guest lectures. Prior to joining the Virginia Tech community, Sui served as the University of Arkansas’ vice chancellor for research and innovation and grew research expenditures to a new historical high of $180 million, which directly contributed to the university’s $2.2 billion economic impact for the state of Arkansas.<br/>Sui also served as the division director of Social and Economic Sciences for the National Science Foundation and was instrumental with the initiatives “Harnessing the Data Revolution,” “Growing Convergence Research,” and “The Future of Work at the Human-technology Frontier.” He has worked to develop a stronger public-private partnership for social and economic sciences research.<br/>Sui also served as chair of the Department of Geography at the Ohio State University. During his time there, he directed the Center for Urban and Regional Analysis and the Geographic Analysis Core unit of the Institute of Population Research. Sui also held distinguished professorships with appointments in the Colleges of Arts and Sciences and Social and Behavioral Sciences.<br>From 2004-09, Sui served as assistant vice president for research at Texas A&M University and as the Reta A. Haynes Endowed Chair of Geosciences in the College of Geosciences, with a joint appointment in the School of Public Health. He was a Guggenheim Fellow, a Woodrow Wilson Center Fellow, and the recipient of an American Association of Geographers Distinguished Scholar Award. He received his Ph.D. in geography from the University of Georgia. At Peking University in Beijing, China, he earned both his master’s degree in remote sensing and geographic information systems and his bachelor’s degree in geography.