Meet Rusty
Russell "Rusty" P. Kruzelock, MS, PhD
Executive Director of Innovation
Dr. Russell “Rusty” Kruzelock has a 30-year track record in research and technology business development.
While a faculty member at Virginia Tech University, Dr. Kruzelock co-founded the USAF Epidemic Outbreak Surveillance program, which helped modernize the military’s biodefense response to infectious disease outbreaks.
In 2004, Dr. Kruzelock headed the PharmacoGenomics Department for the University of Texas’s Health Sciences Center – San Antonio, Institute for Drug Development, developing predictive biomarkers for cancer drug response.
In 2007, Dr. Kruzelock co-founded three Government think tanks that evaluated technologies and recommended technology investment strategies for the Department of Defense.
In 2013, Dr. Kruzelock joined the West Virginia Regional Technology Park (WVRTP) as the Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer. During his tenure, the WVRTP grew 92%, making it one of the fastest-growing research parks in the United States.
In 2020, he served as the Vice President for Research at Abilene Christian University, where from 2020-2023, ACU’s research expenditures increased by 545%, making ACU the fastest-growing research program in the United States (NSF HERD Database, 2024).
Today, Dr. Kruzelock serves as the Executive Director of Innovation at the University of Texas-Arlington (UTA), where he is working to modernize UTA’s innovation infrastructure to more efficiently convert faculty research discoveries into sustainable solutions that benefit society, improve our quality of life, and stimulate regional economic growth.