Following a competitive selection process, the U.S. Department of State and the Institute of International Education have selected the University of Utah to lead a four-day seminar on technology commercialization and entrepreneurialism for 130 international first-year Fulbright students. The seminar, “From Lab to Market,” will draw from the U’s success in the areas of innovation, entrepreneurship and commercialization and teach the attending graduate students how to apply this knowledge to their own research to advance the public good in their home countries.
The students attending the seminar, which will take place May 23-26, come from 55 countries.
Fulbright students are often regarded as some of the brightest in the world. Fifty-seven Fulbright alumni have been awarded Nobel Prizes, 29 have become MacArthur Foundation Fellows, 82 have received Pulitzer Prizes and 37 have served as heads of state or government.
“We’re delighted to have been chosen to lead this year’s From Lab to Market seminar,” said Keith Marmer, executive director and associate vice president of Technology & Venture Commercialization at the University of Utah. “Many graduate students today want to see their research make an impact in people’s lives and on society. This seminar will explain to the attending Fulbright students not only why technology commercialization is one of the best methods for achieving this impact, but also how to accomplish it.”
The From Lab to Market seminar will include discussions with experts and politicians, visits to industry-leading companies and research institutions, interactive workshops and peer-engagement networking activities. Sessions will focus on the transformation of basic and applied research into new products and explore models that leverage technological innovation to advance economic and social goals in international markets.
The Fulbright students will be housed in the university’s new $45 million Lassonde Studios, a campus facility completed in 2016 where over 400 students currently live, create new products and launch companies.
Some of the speakers at the event will include Tom Chi, co-founder of Google X; Paul Ahlstrom, author of “Nail It Then Scale It”; Utah Gov. Gary Herbert; and Chris Wasden, author of “Tension: The Energy of Innovation.”
The Salt Lake City From Lab to Market seminar is one of 11 enrichment seminars hosted across the United States by the State Department and supported by the Institute of International Education. These enrichment seminars are an integral part of first-year Fulbright foreign students’ experiences.
About Technology & Venture Commercialization
Technology & Venture Commercialization manages the university’s intellectual property portfolio, which includes collecting invention disclosures, filing patents, licensing technologies and helping spin out companies based on university inventions. Its purpose is to transform University of Utah discoveries into practical applications. Since 1970, TVC has spun-out over 270 companies, including NPS Pharmaceuticals, BioFire, Myriad Genetics, Evans and Sutherland and Recursion Pharmaceuticals.
About the Fulbright Program
The Fulbright Program is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government and is designed to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. The program actively seeks out individuals of achievement and potential who represent the full diversity of their respective societies and selects nominees through open, merit based competitions.
