Robert McClain, PhD
Robert McClain, PhD, is the interim executive vice president for research and innovation at The University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth. In this role, Dr. McClain provides strategic leadership for the research enterprise at HSC and oversees the operation of units that include HSC’s research institutes, research administration, research core labs and HSC Next, among others. An adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Genetics in the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Dr. McClain designed and led the first course on innovation and entrepreneurship in 2019 at HSC. He also collaborated with a College of Pharmacy colleague to create a course that provides students experiential learning opportunities with biotech companies incubating at HSC. In addition, he served as course director for “Introduction to Industry Practice” and has lectured on the ownership of data and intellectual property in biomedical ethics. In 2022, Dr. McClain was awarded a $2 million grant to establish a Phase 0 SBIR program to enhance funding success by local startups and increase participation by historically underserved groups. Dr. McClain also led efforts at HSC to successfully obtain the Innovation & Economic Prosperity University designation from the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities. HSC is the first health science center and smallest school ever to obtain the IEP designation from APLU. He earned his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Abilene Christian University where he was the recipient of a full scholarship from the Dow Chemical Foundation. He then went on to receive his PhD in chemistry from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he studied peptide chemistry and the de novo engineering of small proteins by solid-phase synthesis. Dr. McClain has spent about half of his career in industry roles and is an accomplished chemist and inventor. He is an inventor on 33 patents granted by countries around the world. At Nalco Chemical, he was twice recognized as Researcher of the Year and is in the corporation’s Inventor Hall of Fame. He also has served on the board of several regional economic development partners throughout the Dallas/Fort Worth area. In addition, Dr. McClain leads a green chemistry startup that received an SBIR Phase I grant from the National Science Foundation startup to develop safer antioxidant chemicals from agricultural by-products.
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