Pathway to innovation illuminated at 2015 MRS Fall Meeting
- PDF / 210,804 Bytes
- 2 Pages / 585 x 783 pts Page_size
- 97 Downloads / 202 Views
Pathway to innovation illuminated at 2015 MRS Fall Meeting
development and provide solutions to global challenges in energy, education, agriculture, and health. “Many materials scientists are interested in how to use light from many angles,” explained Falke. “And product harvesting or light production is also intertwined with this. So we chose the International Year of Light as our guideline for the 2015 fall session on entrepreneurship.” Falke became aware of the ongoing TIF series during an earlier MRS Spring Meeting. “I was hooked and volunteered to help,” she explained. With her own work in the area of detector design and Campo’s work involving electron/ion microscopy and synchrotron spectroscopy to draw upon, the two focused on bringing together key innovators in technologies that use light as a source of energy or as a means of materials characterization. They expanded the topic to also include innovators who use other analysis techniques in materials science, life sciences, and medicine. The forum featured 12 speakers from the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, Sweden and the United States, enabling comparison of experiences in their own startups for light diodes, solar cells, and instrumentation for analysis, pressure sensing, specimen preparation, and nanotechnology or in fostering national funding programs and education (see the TIF program on next page). Keynote speaker Sir Colin Humphreys (University of Cambridge) described how his work in producing gallium nitride LEDs on large-area silicon substrates would fill an environmental and economic need. He discussed his experience initially working with industry, his decision to start his own company, the start up of a second company, and the importance of intellectual property protection and his decision to sell his successful companies to a UK business despite having offers in several other countries. The experience brought added benefits to his research group. “I
www.mrs.org/fall2015
A
dvances in materials underpin many social advances, and materials scientists are key to enabling the transition of materials development from laboratory to market. Today, an increased pace of discovery is needed to meet the rising challenges in both established and new areas. But the process of bringing a product to market and building a sustainable enterprise is complex. Innovators need to understand how to build a business plan, find effective partners, secure funding, and understand their country’s legal systems and resources, in addition to technical issues.* An enthusiastic audience of scientists and engineers recently convened for the 9th Technology Innovation Forum (TIF) to
hear case studies of successful startups and advice on managing these challenges. This half-day event held during the 2015 MRS Fall Meeting brought together entrepreneurs from the United States and Europe to share their experiences. Organized by Meiken Falke (Bruker Nano GmbH Berlin), Eva Campo (Bangor University), and Wolfgang Jaeger (Universität Kiel), the forum focused on the theme “Entrepren
Data Loading...
