Stony Brook University’s first chief innovation officer is Michael Kinch. In this new role, he will lead the campus’ Office of Economic Development as well as hold a faculty position in the Department of Pharmacology.
Kinch brings expertise in industry and academia, including from his work at Yale University and at Washington University in St. Louis, both of which focus on innovation and in cultivating marketable solutions. At Stony Brook, he will report to Kevin Gardner, the incoming vice president for research, beginning Aug. 1, and serve on the president’s university council.
Stony Brook’s Office of Economic Development fosters innovation and industry partnerships, providing support to companies, entrepreneurs and startups, including through guidance and space for incubation. In the last 10 years, the university conducted more than 4,000 projects that helped nearly 1,000 Long Island companies create about 20,000 jobs and generate more than $1 billion in business activity, according to Stony Brook.
In leading Stony Brook’s Office of Economic Development, Kinch will direct campus-wide initiatives related to accelerating innovation and economic development. His efforts will focus on technology-based entrepreneurship, venture capital and other sources of startup investment, as well as the research commercialization and economic development programs from faculty and student research and initiatives.
With his staff, Kinch will collaborate with departments, colleges and schools across campus to highlight the university's service to advance Stony Brook's economic impact on the region and develop partnerships with external entities that benefit the university and help advance economic development interests of these external entities.
“As a leader who brings people together and who knows that research, scholarship and discovery are a universal language, Michael is an excellent leader to help the university realize its boldest ambitions to make a profound, positive impact on society for generations to come,” Stony Brook’s outgoing president Maurie McInnis said in a news release about Kinch’s new position. McInnis, who announced last week that she was leaving Stony Brook, will serve as Yale’s next president.
“I am excited by the incredible potential for innovative commercial development on Long Island in general and Stony Brook University in particular,” Kinch said in the news release. “The university has incredible expertise in key aspects of science and technology that are needed to address looming challenges, including but not limited to affordable and sustainable energy to biomedical applications."
Kinch’s most recent role was as executive dean of sciences at Long Island University, where he created and deployed approaches to improve biomedical translation and entrepreneurship. He founded and directed the Center for Research Innovation in Biotechnology, which analyzes the sources of biomedical innovation.
Kinch previously served as associate vice chancellor, founder of the Centers for Research Innovation in Biotechnology and Drug Discovery and professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at Washington University in St. Louis. There, he helped lead entrepreneurship activities and founded the Centers for Research Innovation in Biotechnology and Drug Discovery, which analyzes innovation in the science and business of medicines.
In a prior role at Yale, he founded and led the Yale Center for Molecular Discovery. He previously served a lecturer at the Krieger Program in Biotechnology at John Hopkins University; associate professor at the Indiana University School of Medicine, West Lafayette Campus at Purdue University; and as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Kinch has worked in the private sector, serving as vice president for Research and Development as well as chief scientific officer at Functional Genetics, and head of Cancer Biology & Translational Sciences at Medimmune.
He is also the author of six books, has published extensively in peer-reviewed publications and participated in national media appearances and interviews about his research.
Kinch earned his PhD in immunology from Duke University Medical Center and his BS in molecular genetics.
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