Entrepreneurship Workshop - Speakers

Tony Bunn (South Africa)
Duncan Moore (USA)
Sérgio Queiroz (Brazil)
Richard Brooks (UK)
Dawood Parker (UK)
Surya Raghu (USA)
David Secher (UK)
Harry Thangaraj (UK)
Hamana Yumiko (Switzerland)
Steve Taylor (Italy)
Regina Luttge (Netherlands)
Elizabeth Rasekoala (South Africa, UK)
Others to be confirmed
 

Prof Tony Bunn


PhD (Medical Science)

Tony was instrumental in establishing the MRC Innovation Centre, which manages innovation opportunities emanating from MRC research discovery by identifying, protecting, commercializing and implementing sustainable health technologies. He is also an Associate Professor in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Cape Town. He has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals and supervised numerous MSc and PhD postgraduates. His own research has lead to the establishment of four successful start-up companies all based on securing critical IP. Tony has also served as non-executive board Chairman of a JSE listed company. Together with the international organisation, MIHR, he founded the African Programme for Health Innovation which is actively involved in capacity development in Technology Transfer in Southern and East Africa. Tony is also a co-founder and member of the Southern African Research & Innovation Management Association (SARIMA) and actively participates in the National Innovation agenda.

 

Duncan Moore, PhD, Professor of Optics

Dr. Moore has extensive experience in the academic, research, business, and government arenas of science and technology. He is an expert in gradient-index optics, computer-aided design, and the manufacture of optical systems. He has advised more than 50 graduate thesis students. In 1993, Dr. Moore began a one-year appointment as Science Advisor to Senator John D. Rockefeller IV of West Virginia. He also chaired the successful Hubble Independent Optical Review Panel organized in 1990 to determine the correct prescription of the Hubble Space Telescope. In addition, Dr. Moore is the founder and former president of Gradient Lens Corporation of Rochester, New York, the manufacturer of the high-quality, low-cost Hawkeye boroscope.

Since the summer of 2005, Dr. Moore has been a Visiting Professor at Stanford University, where he has worked on its Center for Longevity to create an international, interdisciplinary research and teaching network focused on solving fundamental physical and social problems associated with extended life expectancy. He is also Senior Fellow of Greater Rochester Enterprise. In this position, he is the initiator and organizer of the Golden Horseshoe Business Plan Contest, a competition that includes the areas of Western New York State and Southern Ontario Province.

 

Sérgio Robles Reis de Queiroz

Sérgio Queiroz, born 1956, is an Associate Professor at the Science and Technology Policy Department, Geosciences Institute, University of Campinas, Brazil. He is also a Special Advisor for Technological Innovation to the Scientific Director at FAPESP - The State of São Paulo Research Foundation.

He received an engineering degree in 1978, from the University of São Paulo, and his M.Sc. and his D. Phil in Economics in 1987 and 1993, respectively, both from the University of Campinas. He was a Visiting Research Fellow at SPRU - Science and Technology Policy Research, University of Sussex, England, in 2000.

He has an extensive researching, teaching and administrative experience in the University and recently in the Government sector. He was Deputy Secretary at the Secretariat for Science, Technology and Economic Development (2006) and Coordinator for Science and Technology at the Secretariat for Development (2007), both in the São Paulo State Government.

His research interests encompass learning processes, the development of technological capabilities, mainly in the pharmaceutical and the automotive industries, and more currently the globalization of technology, Foreign Direct Investment in R&D and FDI policies.

 

Richard Brooks

BCom, CA

Richard qualified at Ernst & Whinney and became Financial Controller of Samuelson Group plc and Finance Director of Samuelson Communications Ltd at the age of 28.

In 1990 he moved to Laserpoint Communications Ltd as Finance Director. In 1991 he was appointed as Managing Director as part of an agreement to put the company into administration. He restored its solvency and returned it to its founder a year later when he joined FD Solutions.

Since then he has developed particular expertise in manufacturing, food, technology and not-for-profit businesses, where he has reorganised and implemented systems to match the management’s needs and particularly increased cashflow. Richard’s most significant achievements in this period are:

 

Dawood Parker, MD, Melys Diagnostics Ltd

Dawood Parker was Reader in Medical Physics and Director of the Biomedical Sensors Unit of Universty College London. He was appointed to a personal chair in Physics in the Universty of Wales , Swansea . He has successively started a number of  medical instrumentation companies, Physiological Instrumentation Ltd, Abbey Biosystems Ltd and Whitland Research Ltd which were all acquired by major international companies. Professor Parker is currently Managing Director of Melys Diagnostics Ltd a company involved in the development of a device for the non-invasive measurement of tissue glucose concentration. He has  been a consultant to many international companies and has over 30 patents in his name. 

 

Surya Raghu, President, Advanced Fluidics LLC

Dr. Surya Raghu received the Ph.D. degree in mechanical engineering from Yale University in 1987.  He was a post-doctoral fellow at Yale in 1987-88, a Humboldt Scholar at the Technical University of Berlin, Germany, (1989-90), Assistant Professor at SUNY Stony Brook (1990-95), Senior Research Engineer/Principal Research Scientist and Team Leader at Bowles Fluidics Corporation (1996-2000) and is the founder-president of Advanced Fluidics LLC since 2001.   

Dr. Raghu is currently involved in the development of products related to DNA testing, corrosion sensors, aerodynamic flow control and spray technology. He has inventions related to aerospace, automotive, consumer and biotechnology applications and has extensive experience in developing products starting from the basic inventions.  His research interests include development of meso-, micro- and nanofluidic devices for aerospace, chemical and biotechnology applications and has active research collaborations with many institutions in the US and Europe. 

Dr. Raghu is a recipient of the Alexander von Humboldt award from Germany and has been a visiting scientist at NIST and AFOSR Laboratories.  He has been awarded 9 US patents and has over 10 pending patents/invention disclosures as an inventor or co-inventor. He is a member of ASME and an Associate Fellow of AIAA.

 

Professor David Secher

Holder of the Queen’s Award for Enterprise Promotion
Gonville and Caius College, University of Cambridge CB2 1TA, UK,
Email:dss15@cam.ac.uk  

 

David Secher is an independent consultant in the area of research commercialisation – in the UK and internationally. He is based in the University of Cambridge. He is also a non-executive director of CellCentric Ltd; a Life Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge; a visiting professor at the University of Sheffield; an advisor to the South Yorkshire Investment Fund; and the Chairman of Unico (the technology transfer professional association). In 2002, together with Lita Nelsen of MIT, he founded Praxis, the leading UK technology transfer training company. For his contributions to creating “environments that favour enterprise, specialising in the practical aspects of commercialising the results of academic research”, he received the Queen’s Award for Enterprise Promotion in 2007.

Other previous roles include Chief Executive of the N8 Research Partnership, a collaboration of the eight most research-intensive universities in the North of England, Director of Research Services, University of Cambridge, Director of Drug Development, Cancer Research Campaign (now Cancer Research UK) and Director of Monoclonal Therapeutics, Celltech Ltd. As a consultant, he has advised universities, governments and individuals on commercialisation of intellectual property as well as acting as non-executive director of high technology and investment companies.

Secher graduated from the University of Cambridge (Churchill College) with First Class Honours in biochemistry. His PhD work at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology was with the late César Milstein (Nobel Prize-winner for discovery of monoclonal antibodies). Together with Derek Burke, Secher made and patented the first monoclonal antibody to human interferon

 

Technology Transfer - Translating Research into Economic Benefit.

As countries throughout the world struggle to develop "knowledge economies", the role of the universities and other research institutes becomes ever more central to economic well-being.  But how are research results translated into economic benefit?  What different models are there?  How is success measured and what sort of people need to be involved?  What role dies government play?  This talk will attempt to answer some of these questions, as well as giving an overview of technology transfer in the UK and in the USA.

 

Harry Thangaraj, St Georges University London

 Dr. Harry Thangaraj is an IP researcher based at St. George’s University, London. His main area of research concerns IP policy and practice in relation to making patented therapies affordable and accessible worldwide. Previously he worked with MIHR, an Oxford-based NGO also concerned with access and affordability of health and agricultural technologies, as their Director of Research. He started off his career as a physician, and also has a long history of scientific research in the fields of microbial pathogenesis and immunology. More recently his career in IP research resulted from completing his Masters degree in IP Management at Queen Mary University London, where he won the GSK Prize for outstanding scores in the Patent Law exams. His current interest is socially responsible licensing of health technologies, which will be further pursued under a recent EU FP7 grant (subject to contract negotiation).

 

Yumiko Hamano 

Project Coordinator, WIPO University Initiative
Innovation and Technology Transfer Section, Patent Division, World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)

 Mrs. Yumiko Hamano, a national of Japan, works at World Intellectual Property Organization, in the Innovation and Technology Transfer Section, Patent Division.  She is currently responsible for the WIPO University Initiative Program, one of WIPO’s projects aiming at assisting universities and R&D institutions in developing their IP and technology management capacity. 

Mrs. Hamano first joined WIPO for setting up the Japanese operation lines for processing PCT international applications from Japan.  In this function, Mrs. Hamano was responsible for Publication, Examination and Translation procedures of PCT international applications from Japan and supervised the Japanese operations team.  She also has a long experience in translating the PCT International Preliminary Examination Reports established by the Japan Patent office.

Later Mrs. Hamano worked for the two consecutive Directors of the Office of the PCT as the executive assistant.  During this period, she also served as the Trilateral Coordinator from WIPO in the context of the Trilateral Technical Cooperation between the European Patent Office, the Japan Patent Office and the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

After extensive experience in the PCT Sector, Mrs. Hamano moved to the Division for Infrastructure Services and Innovation Promotion, where she was responsible for technical cooperation for universities and R&D organizations. 

Prior to taking up these duties at WIPO, Mrs. Hamano worked as an IP portfolio manager and a technical translator of patent documents in Japanese public and private sectors. 

She is a holder of English-American Literature (BA), Education (BA) and Master of Business Administration (MBA), specialized in Management in International Organizations from the Faculty of Economic and Social Science of University of Geneva.

In addition to her mother tongue Japanese, she is fluent in English, French and has good command of Chinese.

 

Stephen Taylor



Stephen Taylor has over twenty years of experience helping major firms and government agencies in Europe and North America to access the latest knowledge and expertise for analysis and planning for new business, market research, new product development, and technology commercialization. His current role, as Director of the Technology Transfer Department of AREA, Trieste, Italy, is to work on strategic measures to optimize the activities of the department and to head up all international activities.

He has negotiated sales, joint ventures and partnership agreements with other organisations, both public and private, to further the strategic objectives of the organisations he has represented. As well as extensive face-to-face closure of key account sales, he has also successfully negotiated non-cash deals with other organisations to achieve mutually beneficial partnerships. He has travelled extensively, doing business in a dozen European countries as well as living and working in the USA prior to relocating in Italy

He has previously worked as a Senior Consultant at SRI Consulting Business Intelligence (SRIC-BI), an employee owned spin-off from SRI International, formerly Stanford Research Institute. Working with clients in Italy, and across Europe to maximize their use of, and benefit from SRIC-BI’s syndicated services, specifically Scan and Explorer.

Prior to this assignment, he has worked as Managing Director, responsible for all European operations, at
H. Silver and Associates (UK) Ltd., the European division of a global consultancy and training corporation specializing in assisting high-tech companies with opportunity identification, technical marketing, and proposal preparation and offering training in many facets of technology and business.

His previous assignment was as Commercial Director at TMA Ventures, the commercial arm of the Telecommunication Managers Association, where he was responsible for overseeing sales and marketing activity and for developing new products to agreed profit margins.

 

Regina Luttge

Assistant professor, Mesoscale Chemical Systems, MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Twente,
the Netherlands, Tel.: +31-53-489 2742, Fax: +31-53-489 4683, email: r.luttge@utwente.nl; http://mcs.tnw.utwente.nl 

1993        B.Sc. degree, Department of Applied Physics, University of Applied Sciences Wiesbaden, Germany

1994-1999         Technician at the Institut für Mikrotechnik Mainz, Germany.

1999-2003         PhD studies at Department of Electrical Engineering, London University, Imperial College, UK and research assistant at
            University of Twente, the Netherlands, from 2001 to 2003.

2003-2007         Postdoctoral research at the University of Twente

2007        Assistant professor in the group Mesoscale Chemical Systems at the University of Twente.

Research interest: Micro-and nanotechnology for molecular-scale technical medicine.

I became very attracted to utilise my micro-and nanotechnology background to enable research and development in the field of medical and biochemical applications. I am currently investigating nanostructured surfaces, which are made by nanolithographic techniques. I think that surface bound nanostructures can offer three-dimensional confinement of molecules that allows enhancing or tuning (bio)chemical reactions taking place at these surfaces. Individual molecules interacting with features at their own length scale, forming a nanoassembly, is a strongly growing field of interest. Relevant physico-chemical effects can be studied, for example, by Inelastic Electron Tunneling Spectroscopy (IETS), a technique being used a lot in nanoelectronics. The results may present us with fingerprints of individual molecules in these nanoassemblies. These findings will also contribute to the better understanding of shape-selective processes.

I am engaged in a number of projects linked to the field of Lab-on-a-Chip as a platform technology at MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology (www.mesaplus.utwente.nl). I aim for the integration of components manufactured at the micro-and nanoscale to higher functional devices following the approaches of formal design.

The success of higher architecture systems goes hand in hand with the fundamental understanding of the phenomena occurring at the small scale. My expertise extends from the definition of fabrication techniques in glass, silicon and plastics to the investigation of chip-based microfluidics for applications at the Point-of-Care, including microneedle arrays for novel skin patches. The utilisation of these research results towards product development were awarded with the Leverhulme Trust Awards for Technology Transfer as well as by the Dutch Technology Foundation STW with a valorisation grant helping to initiate two new start-up companies Medimate (www.medimate.nl) and MyLife Technologies (www.mylifetechnologies.nl).

I finalized my PhD-project in 2003 at Imperial College in the Optical and Semiconductor Devices Group. My thesis was dedicated to the investigation of fabrication technologies for optical scanners based on micromachined cantilevers in the research area of micro-opto-electromechanical systems (MOEMS).

 

Elizabeth Rasekoala

Dr. Elizabeth Rasekoala is a chemical engineer, with 22 years work experience in industry, both in her native country, Nigeria, and in the United Kingdom. Dr. Rasekoala currently operates from both the UK and South Africa (Cape Town), splitting her time between both countries.  She is the Founder and Director of the UK-based African-Caribbean Network for Science & Technology (ACNST), an NGO working to advance race and gender equality in the scientific enterprise, in the UK and internationally. The ACNST works to advance its objectives through a range of approaches, including advocacy, mainstreaming, research, policy reform, hands-on delivery of innovative good practice, and working partnerships with key stakeholders in the public, private and community sectors to advance and sustain change.

 Dr. Rasekoala is a member of the UK Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) – Diversity Policy Group, working on Gender and Race equality. She is also a member of the following international Scientific, academic and professional associations: American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE); Institute of Chemical Engineers (IChemE), UK; American Educational Research Association (AERA); and the European Educational Research Association (EERA).  

Since its inception in 1995, the ACNST has developed an outstanding internationally acknowledged track record, for the conceptualisation and delivery of innovation and inclusive good practice in the advancement of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education, skills and careers, for students from disadvantaged backgrounds, through initiatives in the UK and internationally. One such initiative is the National Engineering Programme (NEP). The ACNST (with a leadership consultancy role on race equality/cultural diversity delivery targets) is one of the 15 partner organisations delivering the NEP. The NEP is a ten-year UK government funded initiative to address the shortage of skills in these professions, through the conceptualisation and delivery of innovative programmes at all levels of the pipeline (primary and secondary schools, Colleges and Universities), to engage and enhance the interests, aspirations and progression of young people, particularly those from under-represented groups, in engineering fields. A key innovation of the NEP has been the design and development of engineering degree curricula in Universities, to attract and sustain a wider diversity of students, particularly those from under-represented groups such as women and minorities. Some of the unique features which have attracted these under-represented groups have been those of Engineering Entrepreneurship and Engineering for Society.

 Dr. Rasekoala has written widely on diversity and inclusion issues in STEM education, skills and careers, and is regularly invited to deliver keynote speeches and workshops, on these issues at major conferences internationally. She is also a regular contributor to media programmes on these issues, on radio, printed media and television. 

Dr. Rasekoala has since 1998, been contributing to initiatives of the Department for Science & Technology (DST) in South Africa, to enhance Public Understanding of Science, and to raise the aspirations of young people in Science, Engineering & Technology (SET) careers, with particular regard to gender equity. In this regard she has supported many projects at Provincial and National levels, such as:

·         The National Science & Technology Programme for Young Women (NSTPYW): Dr Rasekoala was a key part of the team involved in the planning and delivery of this annual ground-breaking initiative, the first of which was delivered at Hilton College, Pietermaritzburg, in July 1999.

·         National SET Week: Dr. Rasekoala was instrumental in the conceptualization of policy and the implementation and delivery of this annual programme, the first of which was launched in July 2000.

·         Evaluation, monitoring and impact analysis of National SET Week and the National Science & Technology Programme for Young Women, and other public engagement of science initiatives of the DST, in December 2002.

·         Evaluation and Impact Analysis of the National Research Foundation (NRF) Indigenous Knowledge (IKS) Research Grant Programme: Dr. Rasekoala was part of the team which undertook this work in March 2004 for the DST.

She has also supported the development of specialist subject associations and professional societies for the professional development of teachers of Mathematics, Science and Technology, Women Engineers, and Accountants, such as the Association of Mathematics Educators of South Africa (AMESA), South African Association of Science and Technology Educators (SAASTE), and the Association for the Advancement of Black Accountants of Southern Africa (ABASA).

 South African Women’s Parliament: The South African Parliament organises this annual three-day Forum every August (Women’s Month), bringing together key women from all the nine provinces, to discuss and frame action plans, policies and legislation, to take forward the emancipation of women in all spheres of South African life. In the August 2007 session, Dr. Rasekoala at the behest of the Deputy Speaker of Parliament was involved in convening and leading sessions on the advancement of women into science and technology, education, skills and careers, with particular focus on strengthening the legislative framework to drive forward this agenda. 

Dr. Rasekoala was appointed in March 2003, by the South African Minister for Science & Technology, as an international member of the South African Reference Group for Women in Science & Technology (SARG). SARG is a permanent subcommittee of the South African National Advisory Council on Innovation (NACI), created by legislation to advise the Minister of Science & Technology of South Africa, and through the Minister, the Cabinet, on the role and contribution of Innovation (including Science & Technology), in promoting and achieving strategic national objectives, namely to: improve and sustain the quality of life of all South Africans; develop human resources for Science & Technology; build the economy; and strengthen the country’s competitiveness in the international sphere.

 Dr. Rasekoala was commended by the Commonwealth Association of Science, Mathematics, and Technology Educators (CASTME) in January 1999, with an Innovation Award for the development of the Ishango Science Clubs, the first of its kind in Europe. She was honoured with an Honorary Doctorate by Sheffield  Hallam University in November 2000, in recognition of her work to advance equity and innovation in the scientific enterprise in the UK and internationally.

 Dr. Rasekoala has undertaken SMT Education, R&D, SET Skills development and policy projects for the UK Government Department for Education & Skills (DfES); the European Commission – DG Research; the South African Government Department for Science & Technology (DST); British Council - South Africa; the UK-based National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA); the Brazilian Government Departments - Fundacao Cultural Palmares, and the Federal Ministry of Education; the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR); and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA).

 Dr. Rasekoala’s key areas of interest are: Gender and racial Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in STEM education, skills and careers; the development of R&D capacity in African research institutions; and the design/development of innovative engineering degree/Post-graduate degree curricula in Universities/Colleges, to attract and sustain a wider diversity of students, particularly those from under-represented groups such as women and minorities.