NVTC TechPAC Board of Trustees
Kent Murphy, Ph.DFounder and Chief Executive Officer
Luna Innovations Incorporated
Kent A. Murphy, Ph.D., is Founder and CEO of Luna Innovations Incorporated, a technology development company headquartered in Blacksburg, Virginia, that converts cutting-edge discoveries into commercial products. For the past 15 years, as a visionary innovator and entrepreneur, Dr. Murphy has led Luna, a two-time Tibbett's award winner, from its origins in the lab to a thriving business with facilities spanning across Virginia; 144 employees; funding more than 40 researchers in universities and federal labs; with over 100 patents and patent applications; and, creating over 200 jobs for the Commonwealth. Luna was recently the recipient of the Governor's Technology Award for Entrepreneurship. Since 2000 Luna has developed businesses with a focus in the areas of manufacturing process control, nanomaterials, proteomics and analytical instrumentation, petroleum monitoring systems, and integrated wireless sensing systems.
In 2000, Dr. Murphy left his faculty position at Virginia Tech to dedicate himself full time to Luna. From 1995 to 2000, he was a tenured Associate Professor of the Bradley Department of Electrical Engineering at Virginia Tech. Starting there as Assistant Professor in 1992, he received tenure in the shortest amount of time in the history of the College of Engineering. Dr. Murphy is Principal Investigator or Co-Principal Investigator on more than 85 separate industry and government sponsored research projects totaling more than $20,000,000 concerning fiber optic devices for communications and instrumentation. He has over 35 patents which have generated hundreds of millions of dollars in product revenue.
As an expert in technology innovation and cutting-edge research, and a voice for entrepreneurs, Dr. Murphy is regularly featured as a speaker on Capitol Hill, including testifying before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation on S. 189, the 21st Century Nanotechnology Research and Development Act, at major universities, and at scientific and business organizations, such as the National Academies of Science.
In 2001, he was named Virginia SBIR Entrepreneur of the Year, and in 2004 was recognized by the Governor and Science Museum of Virginia as Virginia's Outstanding Industrialist of the Year. Dr. Murphy is a founding member of the Virginia Research and Technology Advisory Commission, appointed by the Governor; serves on the Board of Trustees of the Northern Virginia Technology Council's TechPAC; is a member of the Greater Washington Board of Trade Virtual Incubator Action Committee, Small Business Innovation Research Steering Committee in association with the National Research Council and the National Academies; a member of the Potomac Tech Task Force; a member of the Advisory Committee for the Joint Commission on Technology and Science; a member of the Advisory Committee for the Virginia Center for Innovative Technology; a member of the Task Force of the Institute for Critical Technical and Applied Science for the Department of Engineering at Virginia Tech; and, a member of the Executive Advisory Council of the College of Integrated Science and Technology at James Madison University. Dr. Murphy is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Science and Technology at James Madison University.
Dr. Murphy holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, a Master of Science, Electrical Engineering, and a Bachelor of Science, Engineering Science and Mechanics, from Virginia Tech.
