Steve Albers is the Associate Director for Launchpad, the startup program at CSU Ventures, which is the technology transfer office for Colorado State University. Steve leads all the startup programming for Launchpad, and engages daily with CSUV startup companies to ensure the best chance of success. Steve is also the co-director of the ambassador program at CSUV, a training program that helps grad students and post-doctorals better understand the process of commercializing innovative technology originating from CSU.

Steve is also Co-founder and CTO of Living Ink Technologies, a tech startup that generates renewable pigments from algae and other microbes capable of replacing petroleum-derived pigments. This interview focuses on Steve's work at CSU.

Helge Seetzen is an award-winning technologist, entrepreneur, and a recognized global authority on technology transfer and display technologies. As General Partner of TandemLaunch Accelerator in Montreal, Helge works with inventors and entrepreneurs to build high growth technology companies. His past successes include the transformation of raw university IP into fully commercialized LED TV technology, including selling his last company BrightSide Technologies to Dolby Laboratories after sealing partnerships with several of the largest consumer electronics companies in the world.

In this episode we focus on Helge's work at TandemLaunch where they've created over 20 technologies companies, accounting for hundreds of jobs and more than $500M in market value, and commercialized technologies from over 50 international universities.

Today I'm speaking with Dr. Nichole Mercier, Managing Director for the Office of Technology Management at Washington University in Saint Louis. During her time at Washington University, as well as through her work with AUTM (Association of University Technology Managers), Nichole has been a leader in analyzing the disparities between male and female innovators, and launching programming to help close the gap. In this episode, we'll focus on her work in those areas.

In this episode of Research Realized, Kirsten Leute speaks with Rubén D. Flores, Director of Commercialization at UC San Diego's Office of Innovation and Commercialization. As Director of Commercialization, Rubén oversees UCSD's efforts to bring their cutting-edge inventions to their ultimate goal of positively impacting our world.

Prior to joining UCSD, Rubén was Vice President of Business Development at LA Biomed, a non-profit private research organization. Previously, Rubén held scientific and business development positions with large and small biotech companies in California after earning his PhD in biochemistry and molecular biology from UCLA.

In this episode of Research Realized, Kirsten Leute speaks with Namratha Vedire, Associate Director for the Center for Deliberate Innovation at Georgia Tech. The center's main focus is to make reliable innovation practices based on the principles of behavioral economics, social psychology, and business frameworks accessible to faculty and students at Georgia Tech. One of the programs at the Center for Deliberate Innovation is Flashpoint@GT, an innovation accelerator Namratha is heavily involved in.

Previously, Nammy worked at the Yale Entrepreneurial Institute as a venture creation consultant where part of her job included pitch advisory sessions with startup founders at Yale.

In this episode of Research Realized, Kirsten Leute speaks with Mary Juhas, Associate Vice President in the Office of Research at the Ohio State University. As the leader of the Ohio State University ADVANCE program, she impacts the recruitment, retention, and advancement of women faculty in the STEM disciplines with the goal to develop research leaders. Dr. Juhas is recognized for her work nationally and internationally in this regard. She also holds the appointment of Clinical Professor in the Department of Material Science & Engineering at OSU.

In this episode of Research Realized, Kirsten Leute speaks with Elias Caro, VP of Technology Development at the Wallace H. Coulter Foundation and President and Founder of Biocomx. The Coulter Foundation provides university based translational research grants to establish a business-like process to accelerate academic innovations to the marketplace. Elias is currently president and founder of Biocomx, a non-for-profit organization dedicated to training biomedical innovators in commercialization.

In this episode of Research Realized, Kirsten Leute speaks with Nancy Sullivan, CEO and Managing Director of Illinois Ventures. Illinois Ventures a seed and early stage technology investment firm focused on research-derived companies and information technologies, physical sciences, and life sciences. While the fund's origins are investing in business based on innovations from the University of Illinois, they've expanded to explore other regional opportunities. Illinois Ventures offers three types of funding: proof of concept funding, seed funding, and venture capital.

In this episode of Research Realized, Kirsten Leute speaks with Dr. Mark Turco, Chief Innovation and Corporate Outreach Officer at University of Pennsylvania Center for Innovation (PCI). Mark joined Penn in early 2017 after serving as Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of the aortic, peripheral, vascular, and endovenous franchises of Medtronic which bought his employer Covidien where he was Chief Medical Officer. He started his career as an interventional cardiologist during which time he also conducted translational research on medical devices that are currently used in the field of vascular medicine.

In this episode of Research Realized, Kirsten Leute speaks with Diego Rey,Visiting Partner at Y Combinator. Diego began his career by co-founding GeneWEAVE while finishing his PhD in Biomedical Engineering at Cornell University. At Y Combinator, Diego focuses on bio and healthcare companies and is helping launch YC Bio, an experiment where startups receive financing and lab space in exchange for equity in the company.