Event
Special MSE Seminar: Melbs LeMieux: Innovation to Commercialization
Friday, April 26, 2013
2:00 p.m.-3:00 p.m.
Room 1107 Jeong H. Kim Engineering Buiilding
Professor Lourdes Salamanca-Riba
riba@umd.edu
University Technology: Innovation to Commercialization
Melbs LeMieux
Founder and Director of Materials and Process Engineering
C3Nano, Inc.
The aim of this presentation is to give insight into the entrepreneurial startup process from innovating technology in the university lab to commercializing the technology and the associated challenges that come along with product development. I will help to sort through and demystify this startup process by sharing my own experiences, challenges, and many mistakes made along the way in starting a company (C3Nano, Inc.) from an advanced materials technology platform.
First, a general overview of conductive nanostructures and how they relate to display devices (including displays, touch screens, e-paper) will be reviewed. Specifically, transparent electrodes are a central component in many of these aforementioned electronic devices, and general technology development for transparent conductive films will be discussed. Secondly, an overview of the startup process will be given including technology development, initial team building, fundraising, and the general decision making process involved in career choice after academia.
About the Speaker
Melbs LeMieux is an expert on thin films and nanomaterials. Awarded an Intelligence Community (IC) Postdoctoral Fellowship, Melbs spent three years at Stanford Universitys Chemical Engineering Department, conducting research under the guidance of Professor Zhenan Bao. His areas of research included organic electronics, carbon nanotube enabled electronics, carbon nanotube sensors, and flexible and transparent electronic materials. In 2010, he cofounded C3Nano, Inc., developing solution processed transparent electrodes for display and touch panel devices. He has helped guide the company in winning the MIT Clean Energy Prize, as well as over $10M in fundraising.
He received his Ph.D. (with honors) in materials science and engineering from Iowa State University, with emphasis on polymer physics and interfaces, under the mentorship of Prof. Vladimir Tsukruk. Melbs has co-authored over 40 publications and has been issued two patents, with seven pending.
