Texas Life Science Forum

Jan Odegard, Ph.D.

Executive Director, The Ion

Odegard, Jan

Dr. Odegard is the Executive Director at The Ion. The Ion is a nucleus for innovation in Houston, fostering a community and culture where entrepreneurs and corporations come together to solve some of the world’s greatest problems. Prior to joining The Ion, Odegard served as the Executive Director of the Ken Kennedy Institute at Rice University (2002-2019), where he focused on building strategic partnerships to serve as catalysts for research, education, and external engagements in data and computing. Odegard has over 25 years of experience supporting and enabling research and life-long learning engagements in computing, data science, and information technology. During his tenure at Rice, Odegard also served as the Associate VP for Research Computing (2015-2019). While at Rice, Odegard worked with colleagues in the industry to launch the Oil & Gas High-Performance Computing Conference series in spring 2008 and in 2017 launched the Ken Kennedy Institute Data Science Conference series.

Odegard was an associate professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Stavanger, Norway, (1999-2001), and served as department chair (2000-2001). From 1996 to 1997, he was the founding executive director of the Computational Mathematics Laboratory and research associate in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rice. From 1997 to 1999, he served as the founding executive director of the Rice Center for Multimedia Communication. Odegard received the Michael Pearlman Memorial Service Award from Rice University in 2009 and was elected Senior Member of IEEE in 2002, is a ACM member, and elected member of the academic honor societies Sigma Xi, Tau Beta Pi, Eta Kappa Nu, and Phi Kappa Phi.

Odegard received his Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering from Rice University in 1996, earned a Bachelor of Science degree (1987) and a Master of Science degree (1990), both from Texas A&M University in electrical engineering, and holds an associate degree (1986) in electrical engineering from Telemark College of Engineering, Porsgrunn, Norway.