So you think your scientific breakthrough might be worth millions. Should it be licensed? Developed in partnership with a major corporation? Or should you get some funding and start a company to bring it to market? And how does one get venture funding anyway?
Scientists know many things, but these questions are normally out of their bailiwick. Enter the Technology Transfer and Intellectual Property Management department, which recently hired Bill Shelander, who is charged with furthering the Lab’s outreach to venture capitalists and entrepreneurial resources for Lab researchers. With more than 25 years experience in starting and funding companies, much of that as a venture capitalist, or VC, Shelander will work with scientists and other tech transfer professionals to explore how and whether to commercialize their inventions.
"Bill brings extensive knowledge and experience in venture funding and new company launch,” says Cheryl Fragiadakis, head of Tech Transfer. “His expertise is highly complementary to that of the existing staff. He will help us increase the number of quality startups that come from Berkeley Lab." More>
Six Berkeley Lab staff scientists—Bill Collins of Earth Sciences and Mark Levine, Lynn Price, Jim McMahon, Jayant Sathaye, and Ryan Wiser of Environmental Energy Technologies— along with two Lab guest scientists—Hashem Akbari and Lee Schipper—have been selected to contribute to the next report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). From about 3,000 nominations IPCC selected 831 experts for its fifth comprehensive report on climate change, due to be published between 2013 and 2014. The IPCC's fourth report, which was published in 2007 with contributions from several Lab scientists, helped it win the Nobel Peace Prize, shared with Al Gore. More>
In the first scientific publication from the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS), which is located at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, a multinational collaboration led by Nora Berrah of Western Michigan University (WMU) reports pioneering studies of the effects of femtosecond x-ray pulses on nitrogen molecules, with important implications for the fate of single-shot imaging at the LCLS. Critical analysis, interpretation, and modeling were performed by Berkeley Lab’s Oleg Kornilov, Stephen Leone, and Oliver Gessner of the Chemical Sciences Division’s Ultrafast X-Ray Science Laboratory, along with first author Matthias Hoener of WMU and the Advanced Light Source. The counterintuitive results: peak power increases as pulses grow shorter, yet ultrashort pulses do less damage. More>
American scientists have successfully completed the world's most comprehensive comparative analysis of bacterial communities housed in the human nose and throat. The findings of the study, appearing in the online open-access journal mBio, could provide new insights into why some individuals become colonized with pathogens while others do not. Scientist Eoin Brodie of the Earth Sciences Division was one of the contributing authors of the paper; the PhyloChip, developed at Berkeley Lab, was one of the methods used to examine bacteria. More>
As part of its Distinguished Scientist Seminar Series, the Lab’s Earth Sciences Division (ESD) will host a talk by Josh Schimel, Professor and Chair of the Environmental Studies Program at UC Santa Barbara. Don’t miss the last event in this year’s ESD Seminar Series, which won’t return until the fall. The “Dry Times” seminar takes place today from 10:30 a.m. to noon at the Bldg. 50 Auditorium. More>
Today at Berkeley Lab and the Lab's homepage aren't the only ways to keep track of what's happening at Berkeley Lab. The Public Affairs Department frequently posts the latest Lab news and announcements of public lectures, among other newsy items, on its Facebook and Twitter pages. And if you want to relive a summer lecture or Science at the Theater event, there are 162 videos on our YouTube channel and 468 photos on Flickr. Enjoy!
An item in yesterday’s Today at Berkeley Lab gave the wrong completion date for the ALS User Support Building now under construction. It will be completed in August of this year, with occupancy targeted for September.
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