Laurie Arrants
Ms. Arrants has been involved in NIH technology transfer since 2000, assuming the lead role of Technology Development Coordinator for the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) Technology Transfer Office (TTO) in 2002. The NINDS TTO services both the intramural and extramural programs for transactional and clinical agreements, responsible for budget issues relating to income and costs of patent prosecution and royalties, as well as general management for the NINDS Technology Transfer Office. The office initiates promotion of inhouse discoveries and for gaining collaborative efforts with biotechs and pharmas for new discoveries of NINDS investigators. Ms Arrants serves as the primary liaison to the NIH agency level Office of Technology Transfer which is responsible for technology transfer policy development, licensing, and patent administration. Ms Arrants has a Masters in Exercise Physiology with a minor in Kinesiology from Florida State University, and additional post graduate work at Louisiana State University. Prior to her joining NINDS/NIH, she was Director of Sales and Marketing at a small technology firm where she was involved in strategic planning, management, web-site development, and the marketing of R&D projects funded by grants, SBIR, and ATP awards.
Maryam Azarion
Maryam Azarion is an attorney in the Office of
General Counsel at the Department of Veterans
Affairs, where she is responsible for handling
various technology transfer and research issues. Her
previous experiences include working as the
Director of the Technology Transfer Office at the
U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious
Diseases, Senior Licensing Officer at the U.S. Army Medical Research
and Materiel Command, and Naval Research Labs. She has a master's
degree in biomedical sciences as well as a law degree. She is a member
of the Maryland Bar, and serves on the FLC Executive Board as a
Member-at-Large.
Mojdeh Bahar
Mojdeh Bahar is the Chief of the Cancer Branch at
the Office of Technology Transfer, NIH where she
leads a group of Licensing and Patenting Managers
responsible for patenting and licensing NIH and
FDA inventions in the areas of cancer, gene therapy,
and biological response modifiers. She joined the
Office in January 2004. Prior to joining the Office,
Mojdeh was an Examiner with the United States Patent and Trademark
Office, where she examined applications related to pharmaceutical
compositions and their employment in methods of treating diseases
and conditions, and assisted in classifying and assigning cases for
examination.
In 2007-2008 Mojdeh was elected and served as Member-at-Large of
the Federal Laboratory Consortium (FLC). Since October 2008, she
has served as Regional Coordinator of the Mid-Atlantic Region of the
FLC. In that capacity, she has build alliances with other organizations
to advance Federal Technology Transfer. She was re-elected for a second
term in May 2010.
Mojdeh is a patent attorney registered to practice before the USPTO,
the State of Maryland, the United States District Court for the District
of Maryland, and the United States Court of Appeals for Federal
Circuit. She is a Certified Licensing Professional (CLP). Mojdeh is a
2000 graduate of the University of Maryland School of Law, where
she was co-founder and editor of Margins: Maryland's Law Journal
on Race, Religion, Gender, and Class. She completed the Health
law Program, was a member of the Moot Court Board and the Phi
Delta Phi International Legal Honors Fraternity, and the recipient of
the William P. Cunningham Award for exceptional achievement and
service. She received a Master of Arts degree from New York University
and a Bachelor of Science degree with Honors in Chemistry and
French from Dickinson College. She has spoken on a wide spectrum Mojdeh Bahar is the Chief of the Cancer Branch at
the Office of Technology Transfer, NIH where she
leads a group of Licensing and Patenting Managers
responsible for patenting and licensing NIH and
FDA inventions in the areas of cancer, gene therapy,
and biological response modifiers. She joined the
Office in January 2004. Prior to joining the Office,
Mojdeh was an Examiner with the United States Patent and Trademark
Office, where she examined applications related to pharmaceutical
compositions and their employment in methods of treating diseases
and conditions, and assisted in classifying and assigning cases for
examination.
In 2007-2008 Mojdeh was elected and served as Member-at-Large of
the Federal Laboratory Consortium (FLC). Since October 2008, she
has served as Regional Coordinator of the Mid-Atlantic Region of the
FLC. In that capacity, she has build alliances with other organizations
to advance Federal Technology Transfer. She was re-elected for a second
term in May 2010.
Mojdeh is a patent attorney registered to practice before the USPTO,
the State of Maryland, the United States District Court for the District
of Maryland, and the United States Court of Appeals for Federal
Circuit. She is a Certified Licensing Professional (CLP). Mojdeh is a
2000 graduate of the University of Maryland School of Law, where
she was co-founder and editor of Margins: Maryland's Law Journal
on Race, Religion, Gender, and Class. She completed the Health
law Program, was a member of the Moot Court Board and the Phi
Delta Phi International Legal Honors Fraternity, and the recipient of
the William P. Cunningham Award for exceptional achievement and
service. She received a Master of Arts degree from New York University
and a Bachelor of Science degree with Honors in Chemistry and
French from Dickinson College. She has spoken on a wide spectrum
Richard Brenner, PhD
Dr. Rick Brenner was named the ARS Assistant
Administrator for Technology Transfer in October
2004, representing the Secretary of Agriculture on
issues pertaining to the management of intellectual
property arising from USDA research, and with
delegated authority for licensing inventions
developed through intramural research from any of
the USDA agencies. He is a member of AUTM and the Interagency
Working Group for Technology Transfer convened by the Department
of Commerce; serves as the USDA's Agency Representative to the FLC;
and represents USDA on the White House Innovation and
Entrepreneurship working group, the White House Startup America
task force, and the White House Task Force for Advancing Regional
Innovation Clusters, established by the Obama Administration.
Prior to this position, Dr. Brenner served as the Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Office of Technology Transfer (OTT), USDAARS, managing much of the daily operations on CRADAs, patents, and licensing. Previous positions in ARS include serving as a Research Entomologist (1984-1996) and later as a Research Leader in Gainesville, Florida (1996-2001) following a 2-year research assignment in Chiapas, Mexico (1982-1984).
His career awards include Outstanding Senior Scientist, USDA Award
for Superior Service, ARS Technology Transfer Awards, an FLC
Technology Transfer Award, and the "Pollution Prevention Project of
the Year" award in 1999 under the Strategic Environmental Research
and Development Program, jointly awarded by the Department of
Defense, Department of Energy, and the EPA. In 2008, he received a
Senior Executive Service, Presidential Meritorious Service Award for his
career accomplishments and the 2010 FLC Outstanding Technology
Transfer Professional of the Year award in recognition of his leadership
establishing the Agricultural Technology Innovation Partnership
program with well-positioned regional economic development
organizations strategically distributed across the U.S.
He and Joann, his wife of 32 years, live in the Annapolis, Maryland
area.
Brian Darmody
Brian Darmody is Associate Vice President for Research and Economic Development, and Special Assistant Vice Chancellor for Technology Development with the University System of Maryland.
Projects led by Darmody include organizing the University's first technology transfer office, authoring reforms to the State's ethics legislation for entrepreneurial start ups, developing legislation creating the Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO), initiating Research Parks Maryland (RPM), the nation's first statewide research park organization, and serving as Director of the University of Maryland Center for Applied Policy Studies (UMCAPS). He is the principal author of the Power of Place, and the Power of Innovation, two national policy documents focused on technology-led economic development and serves as co-principal investigator on the $5.1 million Proof of Concept Alliance, a Department of Defense funded commercialization project, and has served as a reviewer to the National Science Foundation and the National Academy of Science.
Darmody previously served as a staff member for the U.S. House of Representatives, the Maryland General Assembly in Annapolis, Maryland, and the Office of the Attorney-Advisor, U.S. Health Care Financing Administration. In his role with the University System of Maryland, he focuses on improving technology commercialization across the University System of Maryland and representing higher education recommendations affecting federal laboratories and facilities in the region.
He serves on local and national boards, including the National Association of Seed and Venture Funds (NASVF), Maryland Space Business Roundtable, Greater Baltimore Technology Council, the Maryland Technology Council Legislative Committee, and is Immediate Past President of the Association of University Research Parks, and previous Chair of the University of Maryland's Network of Entrepreneurs and was co-university organizer of the National Council for Entrepreneurial Technology Transfer Conference in Washington DC. He holds a Juris Doctor from the University of Baltimore and an undergraduate degree from the University of Maryland, College Park.
Barry Datlof
Mr. Datlof is a licensing officer for the U.S. Army
Medical Research and Materiel Command. He has
commercialized biomedical and IT technologies in
the university, nonprofit, for-profit, and government
sectors. He co-founded Pregmama, a female fertility
company developing therapies for women over 35.
He was COO of Tolergenics, an immune tolerance
company, and VP Business Development for a pathogen diagnostics
company. Mr. Datlof also invented the first XML-based worldwide
search engine for licensable technologies, BirchBob. He is also the
founder of InfoWeb Communications, specializing in web-based "startup in a box" knowledge management systems. He previously was
Director of Patents and Licensing at the American Red Cross. He also
founded the Office of Technology Transfer at the Dana-Farber Cancer
Institute in Boston. Mr. Datlof's education includes a B.S. in Biology
from Swarthmore College and an M.B.A. from the University of
Chicago.
Karina Edmonds, PhD
Dr. Karina Edmonds was appointed Technology Transfer Coordinator for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in April 2010 by Secretary of Energy Dr. Steven Chu. Created by the Energy Policy Board Act of 2005, this is the first time that the Department has appointed a full-time person to fill this role. Dr. Edmonds is responsible for working with the Department's National Laboratories to accelerate the process of moving discoveries from the laboratory to the private sector, ensuring that America's scientific leadership translate into new, high-paying jobs for America's families.
In a statement, Secretary Chu said, "I am pleased to have Karina join our team at the Department of Energy. Having Karina oversee a coordinated, strategic effort on behalf of the Department will help increase the rate of successful technology transfers, creating clean energy jobs and providing more solutions to our energy challenges."
Dr. Edmonds joined the DOE after working at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) at California Institute of Technology where she served as Director of JPL Technology Transfer. While at JPL, Dr. Edmonds also held positions in the Strategic Intellectual Assets Management Office as Senior Technology Transfer Specialist and in the Strategic University Research Partnership Office as Manager before finally becoming the Director of JPL Technology Transfer. In that position, her job duties included licensing technologies developed at both JPL and Caltech to industry and start-ups, managing the JPL patent portfolio, assisting Caltech start-ups, and managing prosecution of Caltech's patent filings. Dr. Edmonds is a registered patent agent with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Prior to her work at JPL, she worked as Principal Investigator at TRW, Inc. for internal research and development efforts. During her tenure there, she co-authored two patent applications in the area of noise reduction for the automotive environment.
Dr. Edmonds received a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Rhode Island. She holds master's and doctorate degrees in aeronautics with a minor in material science from the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California.
Hans Feindt
Dr. Hans Feindt joined the Office of Technology Transfer at the National
Institutes of Health (NIH) in 2002 as a Monitoring & Enforcement
Specialist after a 20-year career in the private sector. Since 2005 he
has been Chief of the Monitoring & Enforcement Branch at the NIH
Office of Technology Transfer. Prior to joining NIH, Dr. Feindt worked
in product development at a number of medical diagnostics companies
as an R&D scientist, product development manager, and project
director. Some of the more successful products he helped to develop
include rapid antigen detection tests for Group A strep and influenza
types A and B. He is a co-inventor for over a dozen patents and has
co-authored a number of publications. Dr. Feindt holds a Ph.D. in
biochemistry from Brandeis University and a B.S. in chemistry from
the University of Delaware.
Rob Griesbach
Robert Griesbach is with the USDA‐ARS's Office of Technology Transfer (OTT) where he is the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center's Technology Transfer Coordinator. Rob received a Ph.D. in genetics from Michigan State University in 1980. He worked 25 years as a USDA‐ARS Research Geneticist conducting a broad based research program in the classical and molecular genetics of ornamental plants. Rob joined OTT 3 years ago.
Gary K. Jones
Gary Jones is the FLC Washington, DC
Representative, a position he has held since 2005.
In this position, he provides FLC coordination in
the D.C., area with federal agencies and their
laboratories; congressional staff; and trade,
professional and other organizations. He brings
more than 23 years of professional experience to his
current position, including 7 years in academia and over 16 years in
industry and government. Most recently, Mr. Jones was on the faculty
of American University's Washington Semester Program, where he
served as an Academic Director for International Business and Trade.
He has lectured on global R&D management for the George
Washington University graduate business program, and served as an
adjunct faculty member at University of Maryland University College,
Graduate School of Management & Technology. Prior to his academic
experience, Mr. Jones' career included work as an exploration
geophysicist in the energy industry, a policy analyst supporting the
Department of Energy, and a researcher with the Virginia Department of Economic Development. He holds an M.B.A from the University of
Richmond and a B.S. in Geophysics from Virginia Polytechnic Institute
and State University, and has studied technology management and
international business at the post-graduate level.
Brian Joseph
Brian Joseph, co-founder of Touchstone Research Laboratory and founder of SJ Little Invention and Consulting. Brian has won numerous awards, including Entrepreneur of the Year for West Virginia and the Blue Chip Enterprise Award from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. In his work he has developed over 20 granted patents, with many more in process.
In addition to his business activities, he currently serves on a number
of community-based boards and is Chairman of the Board of West
Liberty University, his alma mater. When not working for one of
his companies, he enjoys driving his vintage hydroplane race boats at
events across the eastern U.S.
Terry Lynch
Terry Lynch’s responsibilities in the Office of Technology Partnerships at NIST include commercial licensing of NIST technologies, Cooperative Research and Development Agreements, and establishing productive relationships with U.S. industry. Mr. Lynch serves on the Board of the Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer and represents NIST at the Interagency Working Group on Technology Transfer and the ANSI Intellectual Property and Patent Committees. Prior to joining NIST, he held a variety of positions in industry in research, engineering, business development and corporate venture capital. Current professional memberships include Federal Laboratory Consortium, Association of University Technology Managers, American Institute of Chemical Engineers, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Mr. Lynch holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering and a M.B.A.
Darryl Mitchell
During his 14 years as a Technology Manager in
Goddard Space Flight Center's (GSFC) Innovative
Partnerships Program Office (IPPO), Darryl
Mitchell has initiated, negotiated, drafted, and
managed numerous patent licenses and Space Act
Agreements with external organizations. He has also
taken a leading role in envisioning and implementing
new business practices. Examples include the offering of federally
owned intellectual property into NASA's SBIR/STTR Program,
standing up the Agency's NASA OPTIMUS PRIME Spinoff Award
Contest, and leading GSFC's groundbreaking participation in a live
public auction of intellectual property through Ocean Tomo Federal
Services, LLC, in October 2008.
Mr. Mitchell holds a B.S. and an M.S. in applied physics, as well as an
M.B.A. in technology management. He is active with the Licensing
Executives Society (LES) and the Association of University Technology
Managers (AUTM), is a member of IEEE, and is the GSFC alternate
representative to the FLC. He was a recipient of the FLC's 2006 Mid-
Atlantic Region Award for Excellence in Technology Transfer, the 2010
Mid-Atlantic Region Award for Outstanding Technology Transfer
Professional, the 2011 FLC national Outstanding Technology Transfer
Professional Award, and NASA GSFC's 2009 Robert H. Goddard
Honor Award for Quality and Process Improvement.
Mark Scher
Dr. Mark Scher is the Director of Technology Transfer and
Commercialization for the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the
Advancement of Military Medicine, Inc., a position he has held
since 2006. Mark joined the Foundation in 2000 as the Director of
Technology Commercialization. Before that, Mark held positions
in a variety of diagnostics, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and
venture capital firms since 1983. These positions included business
development, strategic planning, strategic marketing, company founder, and consultant. Earlier in his career, he worked as a bench scientist
at a startup company. Dr. Scher holds a Ph.D. in Immunology from
Harvard Medical School, an M.A. in Microbiology from the University
of California at Davis, and an M.B.A from the University of Chicago.
Courtney Silverthorn, PhD
Dr. Courtney Silverthorn holds a Ph.D. in Pharmacology from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and a B.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Sweet Briar College. She is co-author of three scientific publications in the fields of melanoma biology and liquid chromatography, and completed a Certificate in Biotechnology Enterprise through The Johns Hopkins University's Advanced Academic Programs. Dr. Silverthorn started her career in technology transfer in 2009 as a CRTA fellow at the NCI-Frederick Technology Transfer Center before joining the intellectual property department of NCI's Operations and Technical Support contractor, SAIC-Frederick, in 2010. As an Intellectual Property Specialist at SAIC-Frederick, she is the primary point of contact for tech transfer agreement negotiations and research subcontract IP review, and provides support to highly visible NIH-sponsored company initiatives, including the Cancer Human Biobank and the Therapeutics for Rare and Neglected Diseases
(TRND) program.
Tom Stackhouse, PhD
Dr. Stackhouse is the current Assistant Director for the Technology Transfer Center at the National Cancer Institute-Frederick. In this position, Dr. Stackhouse oversees NCI-Frederick’s partnering activities through NCI Collaboration Agreements and CRADAs and manages their intellectual property portfolio. The NCI-Frederick campus is composed of staff from both NCI and a system of contracts and is the only designated Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC) within DHHS. Dr. Stackhouse plays a lead role in establishing the IP parameters and guidelines for several key NCI initiatives which have been handled through the NCI-Frederick campus including: the Full-Length cDNA Initiative, The Chemical Genomics Initiative, the Proteomics Initiative and the NCI’s Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer. Prior to joining the NCI-Technology Transfer staff in 1996, Dr. Stackhouse received his B.S. in Microbiology from the Pennsylvania State University and then joined a lab at PSU studying the mechanism of protein folding. Dr. Stackhouse then obtained his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of California, Davis where studied the regulation of gene expression. After obtaining his Ph.D., Dr. Stackhouse was a Developmental Scientist for a major pharmaceutical company and was later part of an NCI-led research team of scientists who discovered the VHL tumor suppressor gene. Dr. Stackhouse received the National Institutes of Health Award of Merit for his outstanding management of the NCI-Frederick Technology Transfer office.
Jeffrey Stempka
Jeff Stempka is a Business Development Consultant with AMTV. His primary responsibilities focus on the execution of market analysis studies during the assessment stage of new technology analysis. This includes identifying research and data needs, and evaluating the market viability of new technologies and the competitive dynamics of the market environments within which they may compete.
While pursuing his graduate degree, Mr. Stempka worked in the
corporate strategy department of a Fortune 500 property casualty
insurance company, where he contributed to the development of the
organization's competitive strategy and assessment of its organizational
structure. His academic research interests include relationship
dynamics within a business-to-business context, consumer behavior,
the relationship between innovation and industry structure, and
organizational behavior.
Mr. Stempka holds an M.B.A. and two B.S. degrees in Marketing and International Business from Pennsylvania State University.
Paul Turner
Paul Turner has served with the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) since 2005, first as the Director of the Process Metallurgy Division and most recently as the International Collaborations Manger. Prior to joining NETL, he held positions at the Albany Research Center, the Department of Interior and Energy, and was an infantry officer in the U.S. Army. His educational background is in military science and metallurgical engineering, and he is experienced in the fields of ferrous, nonferrous, and refractory alloy reduction, development, casting, and fabrication. He is also experienced in ferrous and nonferrous slag processing, ore extraction, titanium reduction and processing, and electric arc processing of metals and byproducts, and has significant experience in military armor development and processing.
Paul is the author/coauthor of 171 publications and formal presentations, has 16 patents granted or pending, and has more than 50 project proposals. He has negotiated over 70 funded Cooperative Research and Development Agreements with private industry and other government agencies, and was an R&D 100 Award recipient in 2007 and 2011.
Paul Zielinski
Paul Zielinski is Director of the Technology
Partnerships Office (TPO) at the National Institute
of Standards and Technology (NIST). TPO serves
as the Office of Technology and Research
Applications for NIST, and is responsible for
technology transfer activities, including patents,
licenses, cooperative research, and small business
innovation research. In addition, Mr. Zielinski coordinates the
Interagency Workgroup on Technology Transfer, and serves as the host
agency representative on the FLC's Executive Board. Prior to joining
NIST, he worked at the Environmental Protection Agency, the
Department of Energy, and private industry, and also served on active
duty as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Army. He has a master's
degree in engineering and a bachelor's degree in biology.