Highlighting Dedicated NIH Technology Transfer Professionals
The NIH Technology Transfer Community is made up of a wide variety of dedicated professionals. OTT would like to highlight and give special thanks to a few of them.
Karen Rogers was the Acting Director of OTT from 2015-2020. This past year she won an Office of the Director award for her outstanding leadership of OTT. She helped to guide OTT through both the rapid shutdown of the Rockledge office and the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. Karen helped to not only keep OTT afloat amidst great change and a rapid work-from-home transition, but also made it a better place to work, more capable, and more responsive to our customers’ needs. Throughout her tenure as Acting Director, Karen went above and beyond for OTT and the entire NIH Technology Transfer Community. OTT is lucky to still have her as the License Compliance and Administration Unit Chief.
Steven Ferguson won not one but two awards this past year! Steve was recognized for his long-standing contributions to technology transfer with top awards from both the Licensing Executives Society (LES) and the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM). LES awarded Steve the 2020 Frank Barnes Mentoring Award, recognizing his efforts to train and mentor dozens of licensing professionals over his 30+ years in the technology transfer field. AUTM awarded Steve with the 2020 Volunteer Service award to recognize his work as co-chair and multi-year member of the AUTM Valuation Committee. Each year he has worked to develop and deliver trainings on technology valuation. Besides his work as a Special Advisor at OTT and AUTM co-chair, Steve also heads the OTT Marketing Group, carries a full docket in the Monitoring & Enforcement Unit, and is also a Board Member and Department Chair at the Foundation for Advanced Education in the Sciences (FAES) at NIH.
OTT would also like to highlight Claire Driscoll and Anna Solowiej, both from the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI). They served as AUTM Annual Meeting Chairs in consecutive years. Claire Driscoll is the Director of NHGRI’s Technology Transfer Office and Anna Solowiej is a Senior Licensing and Patenting Manager. They helped to organize the annual meetings and coordinated the work of 25 committee members each year. The 2021 meeting, which Anna oversaw, was the first-ever fully virtual event. The AUTM annual meeting is the largest gathering of technology transfer professionals and a wonderful opportunity to connect with others in the industry and share knowledge. NIH regularly sends a good number of speakers. Claire and Anna’s dedication to AUTM benefits the entire NIH Technology Transfer Community.
The NIH Technology Transfer Community is made up of an innumerable number of professionals whose tireless dedication make this not only a wonderful place to work, but also a wonderful asset to NIH.