Krannert School of Management names first Innovation and Entrepreneurship Fellow, will aid business connections

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — A professor who will connect Purdue University expertise with faculty and student startups has been named the Krannert School of Management's first Innovation and Entrepreneurship Fellow. These fellows connect the research enterprise with the commercialization enterprise.

Zhan Pang, the Lewis B. Cullman Rising Star Associate Professor of Management, has co-founded and been involved with startup companies in other ways since he was an undergraduate in mathematics at the Nanjing University. Pang is faculty affiliate of the Regenstrief Center for Healthcare Engineering, faculty affiliate of the Integrative Data Science Initiative, a member of the Krannert Ph.D. Committee and a member of the Purdue University Graduate Council. He also is on the board of China Titans Energy Technology Group Co. Ltd., a public company listed on Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

"The innovation and entrepreneurship fellows, as representatives of different schools or disciplines, can facilitate the knowledge exchange across disciplines and help connect people to academic experts in different colleges," Pang said. "This is in line with Purdue's vision of building an interdisciplinary environment for discovery, learning and engagement to become or remain the most innovative university in America and the world."

David Hummels, the Dr. Samuel R. Allen Dean of the Krannert School, expressed support in Pang and the fellowship.

"Krannert holds a unique position at the intersection of business and technology, and we say that big ideas don't change the world until they go to market," Hummels said. "Professor Zhan Pang is not only an outstanding scholar; he has co-founded or been involved in a number of tech startups, and he has served in an advisory capacity connecting companies to venture capitalists. He will be an excellent bridge-builder as we work to expand faculty efforts to help commercialize the world-changing discoveries that happen at our university."

Along with one of his former Ph.D. students, Pang co-founded Data Analytics Technology to develop advanced data analytics tools and AI technologies dedicated to the health management industry.

Pang becomes Purdue's third Innovation and Entrepreneurship Fellow. In January, the College of Agriculture appointed Christian Butzke as its Innovation and Entrepreneurship Fellow. In June, Yung-Hsiang Lu was named the first Innovation and Entrepreneurship Fellow in the College of Engineering. The campuswide program will be coordinated through the Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship.

About Purdue University

Purdue University is a top public research institution developing practical solutions to today's toughest challenges. Ranked the No. 5 Most Innovative University in the United States by U.S. News & World Report, Purdue delivers world-changing research and out-of-this-world discovery. Committed to hands-on and online, real-world learning, Purdue offers a transformative education to all. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue has frozen tuition and most fees at 2012-13 levels, enabling more students than ever to graduate debt-free. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap at purdue.edu.

Writer: Steve Martin, sgmartin@prf.org

Sources: Zhan Pang, zpang@purdue.edu

David Hummels, krannertdean@purdue.edu