Deborah Perez Fernandez

Deborah Perez Fernandez is Assistant Director of Licensing in the Innovation Ventures Office overseeing intellectual property protection, marketing and licensing of Physical Sciences, Engineering and Agriculture technologies. Prior to joining the office in 2010, Deb worked in an intellectual property law firm as a technology specialist, drafting patent applications and responses to U.S. and foreign office actions in various technological fields. Before that, she was a post-doctoral fellow at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary/Harvard Medical School studying degenerative changes in the cochlea that lead to hearing loss. Deb holds a MS in Chemical Engineering and Organic Chemistry from the University of Strasbourg, and a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from ETH Zurich. Her Ph.D. work focused on aminoglycoside antibiotics that selectively target bacterial 16S ribosomal RNA. Deb also holds an MBA from the Isenberg School of Management at UMass Amherst. She is a USPTO registered patent agent and a certified licensing professional.