Technology Transfer Royalties Distributed for 1995 Year

January 5, 1996

By Jeffery Kahn, JBKahn@LBL.gov

Technology transfer is not only of benefit to private industry and consumers, but to inventors. In December, Director Charles Shank handed out royalty checks to 13 Berkeley Lab inventors whose work has been licensed to private industry.

Technology Transfer Department Head Cheryl Fragiadakis said the dividends from technology transfer continue to grow.

"This year, the Laboratory is distributing more than double the dollars to almost twice as many inventors as last year," she said. "Licensing of Berkeley Lab technologies, whether as patents, copyrights or biological materials, continues to be a critical component in making sure scientific discoveries get into commercial use.

"I would like to offer my hearty congratulations to the inventors as well as to the divisions encouraging their work, and to the hard-working licensing staff that negotiated each of these one-of-a-kind business arrangements."

Gisella Clemons, a retired Life Sciences Division researcher who was the first inventor to receive royalties based on an invention licensed by the Lab, received her fourth annual royalty check. Clemons invented a method of producing an anti-serum that can be used to measure erythropoietin, a hormone produced by the kidneys that controls the production of red blood cells. The technology has been licensed to Diagnostics Systems Laboratories.

LSD researcher Eddy Rubin received a royalty check for the transgenic mice he has developed which express human apoB-100, a blood lipoprotein. The mice have been licensed to Eli Lilly and Company.

Judy Campisi and Goberdhan Dimri, also of LSD, are receiving royalties for the development of a biomarker for cellular senescence, a technique for identifying cells within living organisms that have reached old age. The technology has been licensed to the Geron Corp.

Energy and Environment Division researcher Greg Ward received a royalty check for his development of RADIANCE, lighting simulation software that has been licensed to the Genlyte Group, Inc.

E&E researcher Ted Chang and visiting scholars QuiQuan Yu and Yun Jin received royalty checks for their development of a sulfur dioxide catalytic reduction process. The technology has been licensed by The Ralph M. Parsons Co.

Earth Sciences Division researchers Chin-Fu Tsang and Frank Hale received royalty checks for their part in the development of a high-resolution instrument/software package for characterizing groundwater contamination. Their software has been licensed to COLOG.

Materials Sciences Division researchers Peter Schultz and Xiao-dong Xiang received royalties for their invention of a method for combinatorial synthesis. The process for making and testing many complex metallic materials in parallel has been licensed to Symyx Technologies.

Diane LaMacchia, formerly of the Public Information Department, received royalties for her production of two videos--"The Bevatron" and "The Search for Heavy Elements." These videos have been licensed to Pyramid Films and UC CMIL.