ome Robert K. McMahan, Jr., Ph.D. Biography
Dr. McMahan is currently Senior Advisor for Science and Technology to the State of North Carolina, and the Executive Director of the North Carolina Board of Science and Technology, which is the administrative Office of Science and Technology for the State.
Created in 1963 (the first such organization in the U.S.), the board has been responsible for the creation of a number of internationally recognized initiatives to catalyze the transformation of the North Carolina economy by leveraging university research, science, entrepreneurship, and technology-based economic development.
In this role he also is Senior Advisor to the Governor, the Secretary of Commerce, the General Assembly,and the Economic Development Board about science and technology matters. He supports and advises state government on science, technology, university research capacity and structure, entrepreneurship and technology-based economic development.
Primary Liaison
Dr. McMahan serves as a primary liaison to the University of North Carolina System and constituent institutions, the Small Business and Technology Development Center, the NC Community College System, private colleges and universities, key agencies such as the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, and associations such as the Council for Entrepreneurial Development (CED), NCTA and NCBIO with regard to these issues.
He is responsible for developing and justifying legislation related to defining statewide research capacity and structure, as well as implementing science- and technology-related economic development policy and resource allocations.
Corporate Background
Prior to his current role, he was a Senior Technology Strategist and Venture Capitalist for In-Q-Tel, a private venture capital organization funded by the CIA, where he was responsible for developing a technology investment strategy for the intelligence community, and then deriving, molding, and structuring individual investments and technologies within the portfolio in response to it.
Before joining In-Q-Tel, he was executive vice president of engineering and R&D for GretagMacbeth where he was responsible for the company's worldwide research, engineering, and product development activities and for the creation and operation of the company's Advanced Technology Laboratories in the Research Triangle Park.
He joined GretagMacbeth after its acquisition in 2000 of McMahan Research Laboratories, the advanced technologies company which he founded in Cambridge, MA and later expanded to the Research Triangle Park of North Carolina in 1989.
Dr. McMahan has been involved in the creation of a number of technology startups, been the principal investigator on Phase I and Phase II SBIR, National Science Foundation, and NASA sponsored research grants; and has co-led equity and LBO capital raises in excess of $50MM.
Research Experience
Dr. McMahan also currently holds the position of Research Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he teaches and conducts research in cosmology and the design of astronomical instrumentation. He has been a member of the UNC faculty since 1989. He was also recently Adjunct Professor of Technology and Management at the North Carolina State University College of Textiles.
Dr. McMahan received Bachelors Degrees in Physics and in the History of Art from Duke University in 1982, a Ph.D. degree in Physics from Dartmouth in 1986, and completed postdoctoral studies at the Harvard University / Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory Center for Astrophysics.
Dr. McMahan has extensive national and international speaking, consulting, and management experience in organizations and initiatives related to technology and product development, research policy, investment capital, entrepreneurship and innovation-based economic development.
He frequently speaks and consults with national and international organizations interested in innovation policy, investment capital, technology-based economic development, university research administration, and the university's role in economic development at the invitation of organizations including the National Academies and the Federal Reserve as well as the governments of Canada, France, the United Arab Emirates, Japan, and Korea.
Dr. McMahan participated in research that led to the cosmological discoveries of the "Great Attractor," as well as the "bubble and void" structure of the universe and the "Great Wall," the latter of which at the time of discovery was the largest known structure in the universe. These are now foundational elements of modern dark matter theory.
He has published over forty papers in scientific and engineering journals, sits on a number of corporate boards and state commissions and holds multiple domestic and international patents.