Innovation Corner - "Professor Venture Fair"
Brought to you by the UM Office of Technology Commercialization.
12:30 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. in the Grand Ballroom
Professors and inventors will pitch their inventions to local Venture Capitalists who will then name the "Best Inventor Pitch for Bioscience Day 2008."
The University of Maryland held the first "Professor Venture Fair" during Bioscience Day in 2007. Sponsored by the university’s Office of Technology Commercialization, the College of Chemical and Life Sciences, and MTECH Ventures, the “Professor Venture Fair” gave faculty inventors the opportunity to pitch their new technologies to a team of nine venture capitalists from Maryland and Virginia. Presenters were judged based upon clarity of pitch, commercial viability, and licensing potential. The event was hosted by Terry Chase Hazell, president and CEO of SD Nanosciences Inc., a locally based, start-up biotechnology company.
Chemistry and Biochemistry Professor Lawrence Sita won for a technology he’s developed over eight years enabling him to produce pure plastic products, with no additives or blending agents, which are safe for human health and the environment. Plastics with potentially dangerous additives have been banned in 41 countries, as well as in California, leaving a gap for new products. Sita hopes to fill that void by launching a company around his technology, which he would license from the University of Maryland.
Through a single catalyst and processes protected under four patents, Sita can produce polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP) and other polyolefin based plastics from oil-derivated raw materials that are 100 percent recyclable and require no chemical additives to achieve a wide range of properties of technological importance. Both PE and PP-based materials are also currently approved by the Food and Drug Administration for internal and external medical use and have no known associated health risks.
Sita's work received media attention from a variety of newspapers and websites:
12/7/07: Univ. Md. prof peddles purer variety of plastic, Washington Business Journal11/20/07: Professor looks to cash in on chemical-less plastics, Maryland Business Journal
11/14/07: Scientists competing for venture capital’s attention, Baltimore Examiner