Tim Denning, Ph.D.
President and CEO
Tim Denning is the fifth president and CEO to lead GRA since the founding of the Alliance in 1990. He works with GRA’s eight member universities to recruit world-class researchers to Georgia, add high-powered technology to labs and facilities and turn more university discoveries into products that benefit industry and people.
Tim joined GRA in 2023 after serving as vice president of research and economic development at Georgia State University. Under his leadership, Georgia State experienced historic growth in research, culminating with a record high $225 million in R&D expenditures, with more than 70 centers of academic research in operation.
During his Georgia State tenure, Tim spearheaded several initiatives to promote interdisciplinary research, innovation and scholarship; and he cultivated partners in academia, industry and the scientific community. He was also key to bringing top researchers to the university and developed programs to provide students with research experience in the private sector.
Tim arrived at Georgia State in 2013 as a research scientist in the university’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences. Just two years after his arrival, he was appointed associate director of the institute, a multi-faceted enterprise that fueled much of Georgia State’s rapid rise in scientific research. In November 2020, he was named vice president.
While emerging as a leader in research and commercialization, Tim had a successful career as a scientist, beginning with working as a postdoc at California’s acclaimed La Jolla Institute. In 2004, he was recruited to Emory University, working first as a postdoc in the Emory Vaccine Center, led by GRA Eminent Scholar Rafi Ahmed. After receiving the NIH Pathway to Independence Award, which helps outstanding postdoctoral researchers transition to independent faculty positions, he joined Emory’s Department of Pediatrics and Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine as an assistant professor.
Tim currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Georgia Chamber and the Executive Advisory Council for Rowen, a planned innovation community for Metro Atlanta.
