Academic Panel: Driving Impact Through Dartmouth’s Innovation Ecosystem
Thursday, Sept. 21, 5 p.m.
Cook Auditorium, Murdough Center
Moderator: Alexis Abramson, Dean, Thayer School of Engineering
Panel speakers:
Mary Flanagan, Professor of Film and Media Studies
Tillman Gerngross, Professor of Engineering
Daniella Reichstetter, Adjunct Professor of Business Administration
Alexis R. Abramson
Dean of Thayer School of Engineering
Professor of Engineering
Alexis Abramson is the 13th dean of Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth where she has been since mid-2019. At Dartmouth, she is leading an expansion of the school, putting human-centered engineering at the heart of engineering education, research, and practice. Prior to joining Dartmouth, she was the Maltz Professor of Energy Innovation at Case Western Reserve University and served as a director of the university’s Great Lakes Energy Institute. During the Obama administration, Abramson held the role as chief scientist and manager of the Emerging Technologies Division at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Building Technologies Program. In 2018, she also served as technical adviser for Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a $1 billion effort launched by Bill Gates to combat human-driven climate change.
Mary Flanagan
Sherman Fairchild Distinguished Professor of Digital Humanities
Mary Flanagan is an artist whose practice(s) encompass games, design, and speculative futures. Her artwork is exhibited internationally, and her writing explores art and design for social change as well as values in technological systems. Her research has been supported by the NSF, NEH, Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, ACLS Digital Innovation Fellowship; commissions include the British Arts Council, Baltimore Museum of Art, and National Academy of Sciences. Flanagan is invited as a cultural leader at thinktanks by UNESCO and the World Economic Forum at Davos. She leads Tiltfactor.org.
Tillman Gerngross
Professor of Engineering
Tillman Gerngross is an inventor, entrepreneur, and engineer, whose work in bioengineering has led to numerous innovations that have contributed to new and improved therapeutics and treatments for disease. Since joining the Dartmouth faculty in 1998, he founded multiple companies, including Glycofi, Avitide and Adimab, that have had a significant impact on the global biotechnology industry and the Upper Valley entrepreneurial ecosystem. To date, his work has resulted in three approved drugs and more than 60 drug candidates in clinical development. In 2013 he led the formation of Dartmouth’s Office of Entrepreneurship and Technology Transfer, to promote entrepreneurship and innovation among faculty and researchers. Gerngross holds dozens of U.S. and international patents and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering.
Daniella Reichstetter, Tuck ’07
Adjunct Professor of Business Administration
Daniella Reichstetter is an adjunct professor of business administration at the Tuck School of Business where she is also executive director of the dean’s office special projects. She has 20-plus years of experience running various divisions of early-stage companies. She was the founder and CEO of Gyrobike (a Thayer technology) and an early hire at Method, Jetboil, and Belcampo. Prior to working in entrepreneurship, she worked as an investment banker in equity private placements. She serves on the boards of several early-stage companies and nonprofit organizations, and she is an active angel investor. At Tuck, she oversees the Tuck Compass program, coteaches Entrepreneurial Thinking and the Diversity Entrepreneurship Practicum, leads a Global Insight Expedition, and serves as faculty adviser to multiple First-Year Project teams, and is the incoming faculty director for TuckLAB Entrepreneurship.