Ruth Shuman joined the National Science Foundation in August 2009. She is currently serving as Program Director for the I-Corps Program. She was the former Program Director for the Biological Technologies (BT) topic area in the SBIR/STTR Program. Before coming to NSF, she was the founder, president, and CEO of a successful venture-backed life science company, Gentra Systems, Inc., that developed, manufactured, and sold products for genetic testing and research to clinical and research laboratories worldwide. Following Gentra’s acquisition, she held various consulting/advisory positions with start-up companies, and was CEO-In-Residence for Life Science with the University of Minnesota’s Venture Center evaluating the business potential of University-developed technology. Ruth began her career as a faculty member at North Carolina State University, and was a pioneer in the development of gene transfer and genetic engineering technology. Her area of technical focus at NSF is biological and biomedical technologies, and she has a keen interest in synthetic biology and metabolic engineering. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in the area of Genetics and Cell Biology.