Lisa Dhar

Lisa Dhar is the Associate Vice President of Innovation and Clinical Professor at Northwestern University's McCormick School of Engineering. She oversees the Innovation and New Ventures Office (INVO), managing The Garage and The Querrey InQbation Lab. Previously, she held leadership roles at INVO, including Director of New Business Ventures and Interim Executive Director of the Querrey InQbation Lab. She also teaches at the Farley Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation and Kellogg School of Management.

Her academic background includes a BS in Chemistry from the University of Chicago and a PhD in Physical Chemistry from MIT. Prior to academia, she co-founded and served as Vice President of Media Development at InPhase Technologies, a Bell Labs/Lucent Technologies startup that secured over $90 million in funding.

Her research and professional interests span entrepreneurship, innovation management, and technology commercialization. She has authored/co-authored over 25 journal articles, co-edited a book on holographic data storage, and holds nearly a dozen patents. Her work bridges academic research with practical applications in synthetic biology and emerging technologies.

Lisa Dhar’s contributions include fostering startup ecosystems through Northwestern’s innovation initiatives and advancing interdisciplinary collaboration between engineering, business, and scientific fields.