"Entrepreneurship and Innovation Clusters" is the theme of the 2008 annual conference of the national Technology Transfer Society ("T2S"), to be co-hosted this month by the University at Albany's ("UAlbany") College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering ("CNSE") and School of Business.
The event, scheduled for October 17 and 18 at CNSE's Albany NanoTech Complex, is co-chaired by UAlbany School of Business Dean Dr. Donald S. Siegel, who serves as president of the T2S, and Dr. Pradeep Haldar, Professor and Head of CNSE's Nanoengineering Constellation and Executive Director of CNSE's Energy and Environmental Technology Applications Center ("E2TAC").
The keynote speaker will be Dr. Marie Thursby, a Professor of Strategic Management who holds the Hal and John Smith Chair in Entrepreneurship at the Georgia Institute of Technology's College of Management. She is the founding director of a graduate certificate program at Georgia Tech and Emory University called Technological Innovation: Generating Economic Results (TI:GER®), which connects integrated research in diverse technology fields with the business, legal, and organizational issues important for understanding commercialization of fundamental research.
The agenda also includes presentations and panel discussions that focus on a variety of topics related to both entrepreneurship and innovation clusters, including competitiveness, commercialization, economic impact, employment benefits, corporate strategy and social networks, among many others.
Dr. Alain E. Kaloyeros, Senior Vice President and Chief Executive Officer of CNSE and Vice President and Special Advisor to the President, University-wide Economic Innovation and Outreach, said, "The UAlbany NanoCollege is delighted to host the national conference of the Technology Transfer Society in partnership with the University's School of Business. Amid UAlbany's growing recognition as a premier research university, the pioneering educational curriculum and unparalleled public-private partnerships at CNSE, particularly in partnership with the UAlbany School of Business, are acting as catalysts to accelerate nanoscale education, research and commercialization. As such, they provide an outstanding backdrop for the important scholarly discussions that will take place at this conference."
Dr. Donald S. Siegel, Dean of the UAlbany School of Business, said, "This conference builds on our pioneering partnership with the UAlbany NanoCollege, which has already produced unique and exciting educational opportunities, including our joint NANO+MBA program. In recent years, there has been substantial growth in university technology transfer, which involves the commercialization of university-based research to industry via licensing agreements, research joint ventures and the formation of start-up companies. Incubators and science parks are other important institutions engaged in university technology transfer. Academics, policymakers, and practitioners who are interested in intellectual property, patenting and legal issues, and technology-based economic development will find many sessions at the conference to be highly informative. These activities are also critical to the expansion and growth of research universities, as they lead to income opportunities and, in turn, support additional fundamental and applied research."
Dr. Haldar said, "It is a pleasure to collaborate with our colleagues at UAlbany's School of Business to present this conference dedicated to examining the increasingly critical role that universities are playing in promoting technology transfer in the global economy. We look forward to engaging in productive discussions that will help to address a host of vital issues in the 21st century."
A non-profit organization devoted to the interdisciplinary scholarly analysis of technology transfer from universities and federal laboratories to industry, T2S also sponsors the Journal of Technology Transfer, the only academic journal devoted to the managerial and policy implications of technology transfer.
http://cnse.albany.edu/
