March 2012

NCIIA-LENS OF THE MARKET from Scott Hancock on Vimeo.

Judy is featured in this video by Scott Hancock on the NCIIA Lens of the Market (LoM) workshop currently being offered to NSF Centers for Chemical Innovation (CCI).

Judy describes the Lens of the Market workshop, an opportunity STEM researchers to learn the language and the lens of the market and how to use this to further their research and potentially solve some of the great challenges facing the world today.  Students who recently attended a LoM workshop discuss what they learned, such as their place in the value chain and the language of the market, and how Judy's facilitation of the workshop really made it enjoyable and informative. 

February 2012

Judy and her ecosVC partner Joseph Steig hosted a Lens of the Market (LoM) Workshop last week at Oregon State University for the Phase II CCI, the Center for Sustainable Materials Chemistry (CSMC).  The workshop brought together 6 teams of graduate students, post docs and faculty researching various aspects of inorganic nanocluster chemistry and thin film formation.  

The LoM Workshop's goal is to help researchers build a common vocabulary and set of skills for using both the lens of the market and the lens of research in developing innovations and translating them to market use.

Judy reviewing a value chain with a workshop participant.

Joseph Steig discusses Innovation Lab, the next step in the process of understanding innovations and markets.

February 2012

Did you miss the Innovation Webinar Judy moderated that was presented by the Center for Sustainable Materials Chemistry (CSMC) at Oregon State University?  Fear not!  It was recorded and you can watch it below!

The basis for most ventures based on discoveries in science and engineering is their inventions—their intellectual property. And the importance of protecting intellectual property—these all important intangible assets—in an appropriate way becomes a key factor in the ability of any researcher to realize the translation of their research to a marketable product or service!

But how can research be protected? What are the options for protecting your intellectual property? What is the role of the Tech Transfer office in protecting and commercializing university IP? What are the roles of students, post docs and professors in this protection process? What are the similarities and differences in protecting intellectual property for new materials and their uses from other types of inventions?

Listen to Judy and our distinguished panelists take live audience questions on translating university research into market oriented innovations!

Panelists:

Dr. Mary Foley Phillips, Associate Director - Intellectual Property and Licensing, Oregon State University
Dr. Phillips is the Associate Director for the Office for Commercialization & Corporate Development at Oregon State University and responsible for overseeing the management of intellectual property and licensing of OSU inventions.

Stacey C. Slater, Partner, Klarquist Sparkman, LLP
Mr. Slater practices all aspects of intellectual property law, including patent, trademark, and copyright law. His primary experience is in patent prosecution in the mechanical arts, chemical arts and biotechnology; and preparation of U.S. and foreign applications related to pharmaceuticals, drug delivery and vaccines.

Dr. Judith Giordan, Partner in ecosVC and Senior Advisor to the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA), was the panel moderator.
In a career that has spanned 30 years, Dr. Giordan, the recipient of the 2010 Francis Garvin-John Olin medal of the American Chemical Society, has served in executive and leadership positions in R&D and operations at some of the world's top brands, including International Flavors and Fragrances, Inc., the Pepsi-Cola Company, and the Henkel Corporation.

Funded through grants from the National Science Foundation and ONAMI, this FREE series is being developed in conjunction with the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA) and ecosVC with the aim of providing STEM graduate students, faculty and post docs with knowledge on the rewards and benefits of learning the language of innovation—and the skills to translate their research into solutions to the challenges facing people and the planet!  

For more information on the CSMC Seminar Series and to view videos of past webinars click here.

January 2012

The NCIIA in conjunction with ecosVC has put out an interesting and informative video series discussing the importance of the team when bringing research through from an idea to commercialization.  Six experts share their thoughts on how the people you choose to work with can greatly impact your success as an innovator and entrepreneur.

This video series was supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation, grant CHE #0920877.

Judy Giordan, Partner ecosVC and Senior Advisor to the NCIIA, explains that the best teams are created when everyone is superb individually at what they do but want to work together in an interdisciplinary team, and that ability to work and think interdisciplinarily is crucial to future success.
Hear what everyone else has to say!

A while ago I wrote a post for the Women Chemist Committee’s Just Cocktails (http://tinyurl.com/wccdirtywaterjg) on “dirty water”... my mother often said “don’t throw out the dirty water until you have clean water”.  She would use this saying as an explanation for anything from why not to dump an old boyfriend (especially when SHE wanted me to keep him and I wanted out!) to changing majors in college (I knew I wanted science but she wanted me to be a school teacher, as she was and which she loved, and which, as a child of the Depression was to her – safe).

Problem with this idea of safe is that a sink filled with “dirty water” has no room for the clean.  It’s a physics problem – so my argument was that we have to get rid of the dirty water so there’s room for clean – both physically and psychologically.  But how we get rid of the dirty water and how we define dirty is what really matters…

Take careers for instance.  Here’s my opinion – if you’re in a rut in a job but need the income – as 99.999999999% of us do – ACKNOWLEDGE that you need to change and take actions to do so WHILE keeping the current job and continuing to do excellent work and see your current position through the lens of continuing to gain skills, contacts, and experiences as you transition to the next place.

If you’re a researcher – how does this idea of dirty and clean water pertain to translating your research into solutions that can help people and the planet?  Well, while not every researcher wants to commercialize their research – being informed about markets and market challenges can aid in defining research questions and experiments.  For many researchers the thought of commercializing the fruits of their research is really dirty water and as such they want no part of tainting the clean water of pure research.

Yet this planet has many challenges that I contend need solutions that come from the results of excellent research.  So here’s an example of how one defines dirty water being an important aspect.  My take – it’s not a question of one or the other – of research versus commercialization or dirty versus clean “water”.  It’s an opportunity to look at a problem through a new lens, a new vocabulary and a new skill set – and hopefully provide a valuable solution!