Charlie Pruitt serves as Transactional Counsel for the Office of Technology Commercialization. Pruitt drafts, negotiates and facilitates execution of a broad range of contracts including IP licenses, non-disclosures, and option agreements on behalf of Purdue Research Foundation. He works closely with colleagues in legal and business development to understand deal goals and advise on risk considerations.

Charlie holds a BS degree from The Ohio State University, and a JD degree from University of Dayton School of Law. Prior to joining Purdue Research Foundation, Charlie worked as an IP Contracts Manager and Agreements Administrator at the University of Southern California Stevens Center for Innovation, where he drafted and negotiated contracts involving university IP and managed license compliance. Prior to USC, Charlie served as Policy Fellow with University of Dayton Office of Legal Affairs.

• What is one invention that you just couldn’t live without?  “Is this a riddle?  A vaccine.”
• What time period do you think would be the most fun to live in and why? “The time just before European settlement of what is now the United States. I think it would be incredible to see the natural beauty of the country – its people and places – before settlement and industry brought (wrought?) highways and high-rises.”
• If you were granted an interview with Albert Einstein, what would be your first question for him?  “Can I borrow your comb?”
• 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?  “First, I would make sure s/he was laying down in bed. I would then ask that s/he close her/his eyes and imagine a world where “zero” is a relative concept, as it is with motion or velocity or space and time! I would explain in great detail the learned teachings of the world’s greatest physicists and seamlessly segue into the origins and evolution of measurement and the units devised to convey and standardize them – Did you know that the earliest known uniform systems of measurement seem to have all been created sometime in the 4^th and 3^rd millennia BC among the ancient peoples of Mesopotamia?! At this point, I would check to make sure s/he is asleep and slip ever so quietly out the door, having lived to fight another day.”