Revel Iyer

Background

About Revel Iyer

Dr Iyer has a long career in the university environment in a wide range of roles. he completed his PhD in Molecular Biology in 2002, and went on to achieve an LLB degree with electives including intellectual property law, forensic medicine and environmental law, an MBA (dissertation focussing on valuation of intellectual property) and most recently a Master of Laws (LLM in Intellectual Property) As a researcher he was involved in various fields of biotechnology research culminating in him leading the transgenic maize research program at UCT. Here he was involved in the development of a basket of technologies directed at genetically engineering drought tolerance in plants. Multiple patents applications have arisen out of these developments. One of these the ‘Stress inducible derivative promoter’ has been granted in the USA and China. The technology is being further developed in a five-year project initiated in 2018. The R12.5 million project is funded by TIA. A large South African seed company is involved in the technology development and has committed R150 million to the next phase of development. He was awarded a Fellowship in the Leaders in Innovation (LiF) programme in the United Kingdom during February 2016. The LiF programme is run by the Royal Academy of Engineering and funded by the UK Government Department of Business, Innovation and Skills’ Newton Fund programme. Dr Iyer was placed first at the pitching event during the 2016 event. Later that same year he was placed as joint runner up in the Newton Fund video competition, which required Fellows to highlight how they have demonstrated leadership in engineering in the developing world. Revel joined the UCT Technology Transfer Office team in April 2014 as Business Development Manager, and in October 2016 was appointed Director: Technology Transfer and Industry Linkages at Cape Peninsula University of Technology. The Technology Transfer Office (TTO) in South Africa is created by legislation and is dedicated to identifying research which has potential commercial interest and strategies for how to exploit it. He remains in this position whilst also holding the position of CEO: Aonyx Holdings from January 2019.