Dr. Marc Nabhan’s path from Lebanon to leading UTK’s Office of Entrepreneurship and New Ventures
Nabhan said he looks forward to being “the liaison between university science and the greater community."
The University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK) Office of Research, Innovation, and Economic Development (ORIED) has a new Assistant Director of Entrepreneurship and New Ventures. It is, Dr. Marc Nabhan who joined the university in July 2024, six months after earning his Ph.D. at Vanderbilt University. 
We caught up with Nabhan to learn more about his background and the footprint he hopes to leave on the university and broader community.
UTK hired Nabhan a little more than five months ago as the Assistant Director of Entrepreneurship and New Ventures, in part to support Rob Coleman’s vision for the Office of Entrepreneurship and New Ventures. However, Coleman recently accepted a new role within UTK as the Senior Director of Partnerships. Now, Nabhan is in the process of stepping into Coleman’s old role, which will soon make him the Director of I-Corps at UTK, and the person in charge of disseminating a $250,000 fund dedicated by Chancellor Donde Plowman to advance entrepreneurship on campus. teknovation.biz will update readers when that title shift is made official.
“It’s the perfect fit for me and my background,” Nabhan said.
It’s true. His background is highly scientific with a doctorate in chemical engineering from Vanderbilt University, where he developed advanced research skills interfacing proteins and polymers. Nabhan also co-founded “Optomar Technologies,” a medical device start-up that provided him with the experience of successfully commercializing and launching a science-driven venture.
His journey to this point wasn’t simple, but Nabhan said that’s what makes it so special.
He was born in Beirut, Lebanon, a country that has long been marked with economic challenges, political instability, regional conflicts, and high unemployment stemming from a limited industrial base.
“From the time you’re young, it’s drilled into you that to live a successful life, you will need to emigrate,” he said.
Only about five and a half million people live in Lebanon; whereas, about 14 million emigrants are scattered around Europe, the United States, and other developed countries.
An example of how encouraged emigration is – Nabhan learned four languages growing up: Arabic, French, English, and Spanish. The moment he turned 18, he left Beirut to move to the U.S. to pursue an education in chemical engineering with an emphasis in biomedical engineering at the University of Nevada, Reno.
He was later accepted into Vanderbilt’s PhD program and became a doctoral candidate. During his Ph.D., Nabhan focused on novel solar energy conversion technologies using biohybrid systems. Specifically, he worked with a plant protein complex called Photosystem I (PSI), which is a protein plants use naturally to capture sunlight during photosynthesis. His goal was to explore how PSI in solid-state devices could operate as a renewable energy source, and as a potential alternative to current solar panels.
Additionally, Nabhan shared how he also worked on a project to advance rapid pathogen detection for the infamous SARS-COVID 19 virus.
Connecting the dots – that’s how Nabhan got plugged into the entrepreneurial scene at Vanderbilt. He first participated in the Mid-South Regional Innovation-Corps program and began involvement with The Wond’ry. He made customer discovery calls to determine a market fit and commercialization strategy.
Around the same time, Nabhan participated in the Scipreneur Challenge with BioTN and doubled down on his efforts to start his own company. He was the first innovator from the Mid-South I-Corps program to be accepted into the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) national I-Corps program.
“It was a great experience. We made a lot of powerful connections in the medical and entrepreneurial space and learned a lot working with the other national teams,” he said.
Nabhan and Dr. Mark Hilton launched Optomar Technologies in January 2021. The company focused on developing a metabolic rate sensor. This sensor is designed to help measure calorie consumption accurately, which is useful in medical settings like Intensive Care Units (ICUs). To this point, he and Hilton have managed to raise over $65,000 in non-dilutive funding.
“I realized that to be successful, you need this hunger, interest, and tenacity to solve problems,” Nabhan said. He is still fueled primarily by his passion for solving problems, but also by his roots.
“I don’t do it for myself, I do it for all the people who didn’t have the opportunity to do it. Family, friends, and community members who may still be in Lebanon. I am very driven by the adversities I’ve had to overcome to get to this point. It’s not a choice, but a mission to create value-added change on a larger scale and make my people proud” he said.
His new role with UTK’s ORIED will now take up the bulk of his time; however, it opens a new door for Nabhan to explore the realm of teaching something he knows well.
“To move from innovator to entrepreneur you must be able to talk about your innovation in ways people understand – and find applicable to them. You need to be flexible to change courses, accept feedback, and pivot when necessary,” he said, adding, “Always treat entrepreneurship like a student – you’re not the expert, your potential customers are – you have to get out of the building and learn about their problems.”
During the most recent I-Corps cohort, Nabhan showed how he plans to run the program differently. He asked innovators many questions, challenged them on market fits, and encouraged them to be open-minded about how their scientific research can have an impact on the broader community.
When asked about his favorite part of the new role, Nabhan said he looks forward to being “the liaison between university science and the greater community,” and to supporting the growth of the Knoxville entrepreneurial ecosystem.
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