Deba Dutta is interim executive director of Discovery Partners Institute and senior advisor to the president of the University of Illinois System. He has broad leadership experience in public higher education spanning both flagship AAU research universities (Illinois, Michigan, Purdue, and Rutgers) and smaller regional institutions (at Purdue and Michigan). At these institutions he has served as chancellor, campus and system provost, vice chancellor for research, dean, and director of (online) interdisciplinary programs for corporate partners. In this role he collaborated extensively with manufacturing companies to design and deliver programs that met both employees’ and company’s needs. At the National Science Foundation, Dutta served as program and division director in Graduate Education and a senior advisor in the Education and Human Resources directorate. He was a scholar in residence at the National Academy of Engineering and conducted studies on lifelong learning and enhancing the innovation capacities of engineers.