Robert E. Dansby, Ph.D. (’70)

Robert is Founder and CEO of Copharix, a company that provides innovative telemedicine and precision medicine services, focused on chronic care management and genetic diseases, using data science, NGS analytics and other innovative technologies.

Dr. Robert E. Dansby has broad experience as a research scientist and business executive who now specializes in healthcare informatics and analytics. He currently leads new technology product/service development and delivery, in the healthcare space, as CEO of Copharix. Analytic and quantitative specialties include: mathematics of algorithms, operations research / nonlinear optimization, index theory, and econometric / statistical analysis.

He has 25+ years’ experience in the Bell Labs – Mathematics & Operations Research Division where he worked on a variety of technical projects that addressed complex mathematical and scientific challenges. He developed a unified theory of performance indexes that has become a seminal work in the field; his papers are cited in hundreds of papers and books on the subject. As a leader of the Bell Labs Venture Group, he helped to develop a venture that produced the first programmable hearing aid. The venture was ultimately spun out of Bell Labs and went public.

His other key technical accomplishments included contributions to the development of: (A) a venture that commercialized the Karmarkar Optimization methodology; and (B) one of the first hospital information systems.

His current interests focus on implementing innovative healthcare solutions that utilize analytic tools, health information technology (HIT), telehealth, informatics and clinical decision support software to help improve healthcare outcomes by enabling more personalized medicine.

"My enjoyment of scientific pursuits was enhanced by my experience at UCLA. The knowledge that I gained enhanced my expertise by orders of magnitude," said Dr. Dansby. "Guidance and encouragement provided by my UCLA professors led me to set a goal to continue my graduate studies to earn a Ph.D."

He went on to earn a Ph.D. from New York University.

"My studies at UCLA provided the foundation for my success. I am forever indebted to UCLA for its role in my professional and personal development," said Dr. Dansby. "For these reasons, I joined UCLA Ventures to give back, pay forward, and support UCLA’s ability to continue transforming lives for the betterment of society."