As published in the UConn Advance, May 3, 2004.

Patent Recipients to Be Feted at Celebration

By Pat Keefe

Technology transfer and invention will be celebrated May 11 when University President Philip E. Austin hosts the President's Patent Awards Dinner.

The dinner will feature University faculty who have received a patent in the last year or so. Harry Penner, chairman and chief executive officer of Nascent Bioscience LLC, an entity that promotes the formation of biotechnology ventures, will be the keynote speaker.

"Awards night is a terrific way to acknowledge the importance of our tech transfer efforts, but more importantly to celebrate discovery and invention as the fruits of scientific research," says Michael Newborg, executive director of the University's Center for Science and Technology Commercialization (CSTC), the office whose job it is to bring University discoveries to the marketplace.

"Institutionally, universities are prime sources for uncovering new knowledge. Tech transfer helps move that knowledge from the lab bench to the marketplace."

Austin has encouraged tech transfer at the University. Under his leadership, the Technology Incubation Program (formerly the Small Business Incubation Program) has been established; the Research and Development Corp. subsidiary of the UConn Foundation has been revitalized; and resources have been allocated to expand and improve the capabilities of the CSTC. The three units are part of the Office of Technology and Business Development and report to Bruce Carlson, special assistant to the president for economic development.

"Public research universities have a responsibility and mission to contribute to the economic development of the state," says Austin. "Fostering research and invention that has the potential for commercialization meets that responsibility and adds to economic development through the creation of new processes, products, and companies.

"The University of Connecticut is fully committed to invention, discovery, and technology transfer," he adds.

More than 40 faculty have been invited to the event in the Wilbur Cross Building. Their patents range from "Manganese Oxide Helices, Rings, Strands, and Films, and Methods for Their Preparation;" to "Microwave Synthesis of Polyamides, Polyesters, and Polyamideesters, " "Prefabricated Components for Dental Applications," and "Propagation of Human Hepatocytes in Non-Human Mammals."

Those to be honored are: Steven Suib, Oscar Giraldo, Manuel Marquez, Stephanie Brock; Daniel Scola, Xiamei Fang, Samuel Huang, Eleonora Vaccaro; Tongsan Xiao, Peter Strutt, Huimin Chen, Donald Wang; Bahram Javidi; George Wu, Catherine Wu; James Bell, Katsuyuki Tsuchida; Eric Zhang, Rajat Agarawal; Thomas Seery, Hanrong Gao, Jayanthi Jacob; Alexandros Makriyannis, Sonyan Lin, William Hill; Ross Boland; Glenn King, Xiu-hong Wang; Michael Pikal, Serguei Tchessalov; Martin Freilich, Jonathan Meiers, Jon Goldberg; Thomas Chen, Maria Chen; James Fenton, Russell Kunz, Jung-Chou Lin; Nitin Padture, Juthamas Jitcharoen, and Young-Chan Son.