Licensing Contact Information

Dan Hussey

Associate Director, Licensing

Daniel Hussey serves as a Technology Licensing Specialist in the Office of Technology Commercialization at The University of Texas at Austin. In this role, Mr. Hussey specializes in life science and biomedical technologies, where he evaluates commercial opportunities for inventions, supports the patent process, markets technologies to prospective licensees, negotiates intellectual property licenses, and provides support for faculty members who wish to form startups.

Mr. Hussey has over six years of life science research experience as well as prior technology transfer and licensing experience at the University of Pennsylvania. He holds an M.S. in Biotechnology from the University of Pennsylvania and a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Drexel University.

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Kristin Falkenstein

Senior Technology Licensing Specialist

Kristin Falkenstein, Ph.D., is a Senior Technology Licensing Specialist in the Office of Technology Commercialization at The University of Texas at Austin. In this role, Kristin leverages a passion for science and her extensive technical background to identify, protect, and commercialize valuable technologies developed by UT Austin researchers.

Dr. Falkenstein joined the OTC team in 2017 and currently manages a portfolio of more than 100 technologies spanning therapeutics, diagnostics, imaging platforms, agriculture tools, and medical devices. Kristin has successfully negotiated over 20 revenue generating deals that have accelerated commercial development of UT Austin technologies. Prior to transitioning into a technology transfer role, Kristin earned a Ph.D. in Cell and Molecular Biology from UT Austin and continued her academic training as a Postdoctoral Fellow in Cancer and Developmental Biology. Kristin enjoys teaching and mentoring, and has served as a guest lecturer for both undergraduate and graduate level courses in entrepreneurship and intellectual property.

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Chithra Krishnamurthy

Senior Technology Licensing Specialist

Chithra Krishnamurthy, Ph.D., serves as a Senior Technology Licensing Specialist in the Office of Technology Commercialization at The University of Texas at Austin. In this role, she specializes in life science technologies, such as biomedical devices, therapeutics, and research tools. Her responsibilities include supporting the faculty in the patent process and strategy, evaluating commercial opportunities for university intellectual property, marketing technologies to potential licensees, negotiating intellectual property licenses, and providing support for faculty members who wish to form startups.

Prior to joining the UT Austin OTC, she was postdoctoral researcher at the University of California at San Francisco. She holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the California Institute of Technology and a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of California at Berkeley.

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Ali Goudarzi

Technology Licensing Specialist

Ali Goudarzi, Ph.D., serves as a Technology Licensing Specialist in the Office of Technology Commercialization at The University of Texas at Austin. In this role, Mr. Goudarzi specializes in physical science, oil & gas, energy, and other engineering technologies, where he evaluates commercial opportunities for inventions, supports the patent process, markets technologies to prospective licensees, negotiates intellectual property licenses, and provides support for faculty members who wish to advance technologies.

Mr. Goudarzi holds an M.S. in Petroleum Engineering and a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering both from The University of Texas at Austin.

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Robert D. Villwock

Associate Director, Intellectual Property

Robert D. Villwock, Ph.D., serves as Senior Technology Licensing Specialist for the Office of Technology Commercialization at The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin). In this role, Dr. Villwock is responsible for working with faculty members to manage their intellectual property portfolios by evaluating the commercial potential of inventions, marketing technologies to prospective licensees, negotiating IP licenses, and enabling startup formation.

Dr. Villwock joined OTC in 2016 as Program Director – Strategic Researcher Liaison, where he focused on the facilitation of transfer of research into intellectual property. Previously, he served as  Associate Director of the Center for Electrochemistry at UT Austin where he developed research funding from government, industry, and private sources, and facilitated researchers in the commercialization process. Prior to that, he was principal in his own consultancy specializing in chemical engineering, process development, and intellectual property management. He has held senior-level research positions in startups Golden Bear Ceramics and Mobius Technologies and has conducted product and process development for several different groups within Dow Chemical. Dr. Villwock is an inventor on nine U.S. Patents. He holds a B.S. in polymer science and engineering from Case Western Reserve University and a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of California at Berkeley.

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