Michael W. Deem is an American engineer, scientist, inventor, and entrepreneur. Michael Deem is an experienced senior professional who has operated in senior management, Board, and advisor capacities with companies ranging from start-up, to rapid growth, to large multi-national companies. Currently General Partner at SmartHealth Catalyzer and CEO of a startup. Previously an Entrepreneur in Residence with Khosla Ventures. Michael Deem was the John W. Cox Professor of Bioengineering and Physics & Astronomy at Rice University from 2002-2020. He was an assistant and associate professor at UCLA from 1996-2002. Michael received his BS from the California Institute of Technology, his PhD from UC Berkeley, and did a postdoc at Harvard University.
Michael W Deem

After completing high school, Michael Deem went on to the California Institute of Technology. He finished his undergraduate degree in 1991 before enrolling in a PhD program at the University of California, Berkeley, through a Hertz Fellowship. He successfully defended his thesis, earned his PhD in 1994, and went on to a postdoctoral fellowship in physics at Harvard University through a National Science Foundation fellowship 1995-1996. He continued to push himself to learn more, do more, and discover more, and decided to continue his research in both academia and industry.

As a research scientist, Deem was named the Director of Drug Design at CuraGen Corporation. He was responsible for directing a wide variety of research projects, working to develop new drugs for a variety of injuries and illnesses. He would evaluate potential drug targets, work with a variety of other scientists to figure out what targets were viable, and orchestrate funding for various research projects to try to get new pharmaceutical products off the ground. This gave him a tremendous amount of experience in developing new drugs from start to finish.