Nigel Reuel leads College of Engineering graduate students, postdoctoral scholars and faculty entrepreneurial program

Nigel Reuel has been named professor in charge of deep technology venture creation for the College of Engineering with a focus on entrepreneurial development for graduate students, postdoctoral scholars and faculty.

The National Science Foundation defines “deep technologies” as those revolving around fundamental discoveries in science and engineering for which they provide support in the form of research grants, I-Corps customer discovery training, and SBIR grants to enable technology transfer and new venture creation.

Reuel, who is an associate professor of chemical and biological engineering and the Stanley Chair in Interdisciplinary Engineering, will work closely with David Sly, the College of Engineering Start Something initiative director and Zinnov Engineering Entrepreneurship Faculty Fellow, who will continue his focus on undergraduate entrepreneurial courses, programs and opportunities.

Reuel will also work collaboratively with the Ivy College of Business to create new courses with MBA students and conduct research in technology venture creation.

Why are university graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, and faculty so well positioned to drive new ventures and economic development?

“Iowa State researchers are on the frontline of innovation. There is no one who understands better the advantages and current limitations of their technical approach. They are also well connected to the innovation space and can identify potential partners and likely competitors.

Graduate students and postdoctoral scholars are also in a career position to balance the risk/reward inherent in a new venture. Faculty are also uniquely supported at Iowa State University, where venture creation activities are well received and encouraged. It enhances their scholarship, teaching, and mentorship.”

How will you connect Cyclone Engineering graduate students, postdoctoral scholars and faculty to opportunities to create new technologies and businesses? 

“The technology faculty, grad students and postdocs are developing is the critical spark of a potential new venture. It is my goal to help them understand the process early enough so there is time to gather resources, vet opportunities, and, if the conditions are right, fan the spark into a full-fledged new venture.

Iowa State University has many great pipeline programs already established under President Wendy Wintersteen’s Start Something initiative, including the training at the John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center, the Startup Factory, and I-Corps. It is my intent to help get College of Engineering teams ready and then hand them off to these next steps in their entrepreneurial journey.”

From your perspective, what’s the key to the entrepreneurial mindset or approach for graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, and faculty?

“As in all things complex, there is not one single key to success. Each person and each venture is unique, and that is, in part, what makes building technology ventures so challenging and exciting.

However, a few suggestions on what helps build this mindset: first, keeping the mind open and on, to be able to act on unanticipated results and opportunities. It can be very hard to do in this world of every increasing distraction and pressures on our time. We need to carve out and protect time to be creative, to do ‘skunkworks’ projects (that are safe and have some rational basis), to explore new areas, and to seek new collaborative interfaces.

Second is to keep in mind the bigger picture of our work. We should think beyond the paper and presentation and consider what this innovation and skills being obtained could do for the public who, in a very large part, supported this research.”

About Nigel Reuel:

Reuel received his PhD in chemical engineering at MIT in 2014 under the guidance of Michael Strano. After graduating he attempted to commercialize his PhD work in a startup, Volvox Biologic Inc, and then consulted at a larger life science tool company that obtained the startup IP.

Reuel then worked as a research investigator (PI) at DuPont’s historic Central Research and Development campus for two years on projects ranging from wireless power transfer, sensors, and precision agriculture. He was then promoted as the corporate technology scout, where for eight months he traveled to top engineering schools (including Iowa State University) and incubators to find technology for the CTO office at DuPont.

Although this was an interesting role, he quickly realized that making technology was personally more exciting than finding technology, and Reuel was pleased with the opportunity to come to Iowa State and become an entrepreneurial-minded professor.

Reuel’s Iowa State research has led to numerous technology disclosures to ISURF, multiple patents, and three deep technology ventures (Skroot Laboratory Inc., Zymosense Inc., and Frugi Biotechnology Inc.) The first two are still actively scaling in ISU Research Park, and the third was acquired by BigHat Biosciences Inc. in 2022. All ventures have been co-founded, led, and staffed with Iowa State alumni.

Reuel collaborated with Michael Howard, Hilsinger-Janson Professor of Management and Entrepreneurship, to create and launch a new Iowa State course in spring 2025 that teams STEM graduate students and MBA students in an experiential format to learn the process of creating a technology venture.

Reuel’s work has been recognized by the 3M Nontenured Faculty Award, BMES Advanced Biomanufacturing Junior Investigator Award, NSF CAREER award, and the American Chemical Society BIOT Young Investigator Award.