Sharon Sputz

Sharon has combined experience in business strategy and technical research. Sharon is the Associate Vice President for the Office of Research Initiatives and Development reporting to the Executive Vice President for Research at Columbia University. Her responsibility is to drive research across the University fostering interdisciplinary research. Previously Sharon served as the Executive Director of Strategic Programs Prior at the Data Science Institute. Prior to joining Columbia University in 2014, Sharon spent 11 years at BAE Systems identifying and pursuing new business opportunities in leading edge technology. She began her career at Bell Laboratories managing and coordinating material characterization as well as developing new and innovative tools. Sharon moved on to become the strategic marketing manager at Lucent/Agere with a variety of responsibilities, from leading the technical evaluation of merger and acquisition candidates to defining product planning for the optical networking group and components. Sharon received a B.S. in physics from State University of New York at Binghamton and an M.S. in physics from Stevens Institute of Technology.

Sharon is currently a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the CHIST-ERA and the Tulsa Innovation Labs Leadership Council. Sharon has over 40 peer reviewed publications and 4 patents.