Abhijit joined Purdue Research Foundation in March of 2015 as a Project Manager in the Office of Technology Commercialization (OTC). In his current role as Director of Business Development at OTC Abhi oversees a team of Business Development Managers, Licensing Analysts, and interns within OTC. Abhi is responsible for evaluation of commercialization potential of invention disclosures and develops strategies for the protection of the related intellectual property by working as a liaison between inventors and patent attorneys. Abhi overseas the drafting, negotiation and execution of licenses linked to the technological innovations of Purdue faculty and students.

Abhi holds a BS and MS in Agriculture from India and PhD in Genetics from Clemson University. As a graduate student at Clemson, he also received Certification in Technology Entrepreneurship. After completing graduate studies, Abhijit joined Oak Ridge National Lab, where he studied system-level responses to abiotic stress in plants using a functional genomics approach. Prior to joining PRF, Abhi worked at Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Lab in Upton, NY, where he studied physiology of sugar accumulation in sweet sorghum, a candidate bioenergy feedstock plant.

• What is one invention that you just couldn’t live without? Electricity
• Other than safety and fuel efficiency, what is one aspect that you will not compromise on when searching for a new car? Rear windshield wipers
• If you could go back in time to have dinner with one person, who would that be? Carl Sagan.
• How would you explain to a child who has just mastered his/her multiplication tables that doubling a temperature of “zero degrees” does not equal zero? Although it is 0 C, it is really 273 K or 32 F! Seriously, I am not looking forward to this question coming from my kids.