Robert S. Keynton has a Hispanic heritage with his mother being from Humacao, Puerto Rico. His research career started while working on his B.S. degree in engineering science and mechanics from Virginia Tech. This experience led him to further his research interests by completing his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in biomedical engineering from the University of Akron.
Upon completion of his doctoral work, he joined the Biomedical Engineering program and the Institute for Micro Manufacturing at Louisiana Tech University (LTU) as an Assistant Professor and became the Associate Director of Engineering for the Center of Applied Physics Studies. He later joined the University of Louisville (UofL) where he was fortunate to have the opportunity to lead a number of strategic initiatives. While at UofL, he co-founded the multidisciplinary Micro/NanoTechnology Center, served as founding chair of the new Department of Bioengineering, co-launched the new Cardiovascular Innovation Institute (CII) and served as the initial Scientific Director fo the CII. He actively engaged in multidisciplinary research having contributed to securing nearly $60M in external research funding and was promoted through the ranks to full professor as well as being named a University Scholar and the Lutz Endowed Chaired of Biomechanical Devices during his tenure at UofL. In addition, he led a number of the innovation programs by serving as PI on two NSF Partnerships for Innovation awards, the NSF I-Corps Site award, and the Wallace H. Coulter Translational Partnership award as well as serving on the leadership team on two NIH Research Evaluation and Commercialization Hub awards. He transitioned into the Office of the Executive Vice President for Research and Innovation as the Director of Research Initiatives and was named the Interim Executive Vice President for Research & Innovation in 2018, a role he served in for 2 years before joining UNC Charlotte as the Dean of the William States Lee College of Engineering. He is co-chair of the Academic Partnership Council for the Society for Hispanic Professional Engineers, which provides a forum for Engineering Deans to inform and address issues concerning the education and careers of Hispanic engineers.
He co-founded three companies, Assenti, LLC, Ultra Trace Detection, LLC and CoulSense, LLC with colleagues at UofL. He has 18 issued patents and 11 issued licenses. He is a Fellow in the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, National Academy of Inventors and Biomedical Engineering Society. He has a passion for translating research innovations into viable products and relishes the opportunity for educating others in the creation and translation of innovations.
