Leonard P. Harris

Leonard P. Harris, of Hagerstown, Maryland, earned a bachelor’s degree in geological sciences from Virginia Tech in 1957. A serial entrepreneur, Harris has had a remarkable career in the private sector. He is currently the chairman of Southeastern Computer Consultants Inc., a company he founded in 1977 that has since expanded to multiple offices.

During his career, Harris has been involved with oil wells in Kazakhstan and computers as early as the late 1950s with the Rand Company, and he has formed and sold companies across the country and around the world. In 2006, Harris joined other Virginia Tech alumni to create Techulon, a life-sciences company that is growing in prominence in the world of innovative investment and entrepreneurship. In 2014, Harris founded PhenochipTechnologies, a new company located in Blacksburg, based on novel technology licensed exclusively from Virginia Tech and developed in the laboratory of Professor Rafael Davalos.

A long-time friend of the College of Science and Virginia Tech, Harris is an ardent supporter of the college’s interdisciplinary approach to research. He is currently the chair of the Dean’s Roundtable Advisory Board and serves on the Virginia Tech Foundation Board of Directors, where he is a member of the Development Committee. Harris previously served on the university’s Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science (ICTAS) Task Force.

A member of the university’s Ut Prosim Society, Harris has endowed two scholarships in the College of Science, one specifically for students in geosciences and the other in support of students pursuing a degree in any science discipline. Both scholarships recognize the academic achievements of talented students who hail from the Appalachian region.