Cheryl Horst is interim executive director of NUtech Ventures, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s technology commercialization affiliate, effective July 1.

Horst has been part of the NUtech Ventures team for 15 years, most recently as associate director and intellectual property counsel. She also oversees Nebraska’s patent portfolio. She brings expertise in transactional and patent law, licensing and policy interpretation, and life sciences research.

Horst will serve as interim executive director until the position is permanently filled. She succeeds Brad Roth, who has been associate vice chancellor for technology development, and president and executive director of NUtech Ventures, since 2013. He plans to retire at the end of the year.

In this role, Horst will lead efforts to advance technology development, enhance research capabilities and strengthen partnerships with stakeholders.

Horst earned a Juris Doctor from the Nebraska College of Law with a specialization in intellectual property and a master’s degree in bacteriology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is a registered patent agent with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

“Sustained growth in research and innovation is critical to our success as a 21st century research institution,” said Sherri Jones, interim vice chancellor for research and economic development. “Cheryl brings valuable experience and expertise in the roles that commercialization and tech transfer have in higher education. I’m excited to work with her to identify new opportunities for the faculty, form industry partnerships and advance the university’s innovations for real world impact.”

“I also want to thank Brad for his leadership and commitment to commercializing UNL innovations and supporting faculty innovators and research-based startups over the years.”

UNL’s invention disclosures, license agreements and revenue normalized by research expenditures are in the top half of the Big Ten Academic Alliance. For the past seven years, the University of Nebraska system has been ranked among the world’s top 100 academic institutions for earning U.S. patents, a collective effort of NUtech Ventures and UNeMed, the technology transfer and commercialization office serving the University of Nebraska Medical Center and the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

Under Roth’s leadership, NUtech Ventures developed a robust programming lineup to empower emerging entrepreneurs, including the “From Idea to Startup” workshop series; an engineering pitch competition in partnership with the College of Engineering; and the Business Model Canvas workshop in collaboration with the Nebraska Center for Entrepreneurship.

In September 2022, UNL became a partner institution of the National Science Foundation’s Great Lakes Innovation Corps Hub, a program aimed at moving university research into the marketplace. Becoming an I-Corps partner has expanded faculty opportunities to participate in additional training opportunities and strengthened partnerships with other institutions in the region.

Nebraska’s local NSF I-Corps program, which NUtech leads, has drawn more than 200 innovators and propelled three Husker teams to the national I-Corps program.

Roth will be involved with NUtech Ventures in an advisory capacity until his retirement. The Office of Research and Economic Development will host a retirement reception this fall.

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