Rice University elects AVPs for research security, technology transfer

Rice University’s Office of Research has named Tam Dao as assistant vice president for research security and Patricia Stepp as assistant vice president for technology transfer. Both will begin their new roles on July 17.

Dao will help Rice — one of America’s leading research universities — elevate its research programs to a position of global prominence as he leads the strategy and implementation of its research security efforts. He will serve as a trusted resource to Rice’s leadership, faculty and community of scholars and engage constructively with government officials and external advisory boards.


Dao will help the university achieve its security objectives related to research, international collaborations and commercialization.

He comes to Rice from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, where he has held a variety of roles. In 2020, he was promoted to oversee the FBI’s Counterintelligence Task Force, leading efforts to expose, prevent and investigate research security threats.

Dao is recognized as the FBI’s subject matter expert on research security and legal compliance. He has provided more than 300 classified briefings to senior White House staff, members of Congress, heads of U.S. federal funding agencies and university administrators.

Before joining the FBI, Dao was a tenure-track professor at the University of Houston. He holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Texas at Austin, a master’s from the University of Pennsylvania and a doctorate from Florida State University. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in advanced psychology and psychiatry at the Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Houston.

Stepp will promote a vibrant culture of innovation and commercialization, leading the strategic planning and operations of the Office of Technology Transfer. She will also manage Rice’s intellectual property portfolio and oversee intellectual property evaluation, obtaining intellectual property protection, and negotiating licensing agreements and contracts.

Stepp comes to Rice from Skysong Innovations, Arizona State University’s technology transfer office, where she has been the director of intellectual property for the life sciences team since 2018. She has leveraged relationships with industry and potential investors to disseminate ASU’s technology, expanding the university’s economic and global impact. Stepp managed more than 600 active technologies and contributed to developing seven faculty-led startups and more than 20 agreements for the 2021 fiscal year.

Stepp created Skysong Innovations’ diversity initiative, which focuses on promoting research commercialization opportunities among underrepresented faculty. She recently helped start the Phoenix chapter of Nucleate, a student-led nonprofit organization that helps launch life sciences startups using university-licensed technologies.

She is also a technology specialist reviewer for the Department of Defense’s Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program.

Stepp has a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Arkansas and a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology. She completed a postdoctoral position at the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry at the Czech Academy of Sciences. Stepp has 11 technical publications related to drug delivery, medical devices, flow cytometry and medical imaging.