Dr. Damon L. Tull

Dr. Damon Tull is the director for industry alliances at the UC Davis Graduate School of Management and the Mike and Renee Child Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and Special Advisor on Equity and Inclusion Accountability at the University of California Office of the President. His research focuses on U.S. global competitiveness and capital flows of our national innovation ecosystems.

Tull builds teams to solve complex problems and partners with companies, charitable organizations, state and national education stakeholders, and sponsors to accelerate growth and broaden participation in innovation and entrepreneurship (I&E). He has served as an advisor to senior leaders, research-oriented small businesses, university faculty, and students to help them advance their missions and see their ideas through a marketplace lens. He is an invited speaker on the economic imperative for equity and inclusion in research, innovation, and entrepreneurship.

Tull is an inventor, entrepreneur, and former engineering professor with dozens of peer-reviewed publications, technical contributions, and domestic and international patents in digital imaging and computational vision. He has served as a consultant to research-oriented federal agencies such as the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and the U.S. Army Research, Development, and Engineering Command (RDECOM), now known as the Army Futures Command. He has founded both high-tech and community-based ventures.

Prior to joining UC Davis, Tull held multiple leadership positions at the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) in Washington, D.C. In these roles, he oversaw ASEE’s portfolio of federal fellowship programs, developed new sponsored programs and partnerships with federal agencies, served as the principal investigator on multiple national programs, and created a national industrial postdoctoral program for underrepresented STEM doctoral degree recipients. He has convened national stakeholders in science and engineering research to address the impediments to research faced by faculty at small and medium colleges and minority-serving institutions, including Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Hispanic-serving institutions (HSIs) and Tribal Colleges and Universities. Tull has also served in various faculty roles at Johns Hopkins University, Washington Bible College / Capital Bible Seminary, and the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Tull holds a bachelor of science in electrical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Troy, NY) and a master of science and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Northwestern University (Evanston, IL.) He is also a member of the Screen Actors Guild.