News

As the newest member of the TLA Business Development team, Eric Smith works with the office's Licensing Manager and Business Intelligence groups to manage and expand TLA's 1,400-member expert network, and implement strategies to leverage the collective knowledge of that network to more effectively commercialize technologies invented at the UA.

UA Engineering Professor Dominic Gervasio, Ph.D., and Principal Research Specialist Hassan Elsentriecy, Ph.D., invented and are commercializing a toxin-free method using high-temperature molten salts to extract copper from raw ore.

Sherry Hoskinson has retired, leaving an impactful legacy of work at TLA. With her departure, TLA is implementing changes – primarily in the business development area – which she led and built over the past three years.

Tech launch Arizona has been selected as an NSF Innovation Corps (I-Corps) site. This puts the UA among a prestigious group of institutions that includes the likes of Purdue University, MIT, Carnegie Mellon University and others.

The NSF has awarded UA startup Dataware Ventures, LLC, almost $150,000 for the development of “software analysis tools for field specialization of database management systems.”

Read how TLA helped American Public Media license an AZPM-produced documentary from the University of Arizona, “Raptors! Kings of the Sky.”

Accomplished UA inventors and entrepreneurs Dr. Marvin J. Slepian of the Colleges of Medicine and Engineering, and Dr. James Wyant of the College of Optical Sciences have been elected as 2015 Fellows NIA.

With funding from Tech Launch Arizona’s Asset Demonstration Program, Assistant Professor John Jewett and alumnus Jim Butler of HJ3 Composite Technologies are putting a new adhesive tech to the test, analyzing its potential for use in underwater construction and repair.

The National Inventors Hall of Fame has announced this year’s inductees. Among the cohort of 16 inventors from across the United States is University of Arizona Regents’ Professor of Astronomy and Optical Sciences Roger P. Angel, Ph.D. of the Colleges of Science (Astronomy) and Optical Sciences.

On November 12, 2015, more than 1,000 people attended the Governor’s Celebration of Innovation in Phoenix. The event recognizes the top companies and best science and technology innovators state-wide. This year, UA startup SinfoníaRx received the award for Innovator of the Year - Startup Company, and Tech Launch Arizona was honored with the award for Innovator of the Year - Academia.

Neuro-ID is a startup founded on research and technology developed by Joe Valacich, Ph.D., professor in the UA Eller College of Management’s Department of Management Information Systems, and his former graduate student Jeff Jenkins. The team has chosen Tucson as their company’s home; the ecosystem conditions are right, says Sr. VP of Business Development Rod Dunmyre.

UA startup company Botanisol has been awarded a National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) grant totaling almost $225,000 to develop a new anti- inflammatory drug, TAI-LCx. The novel drug represents a possible replacement for non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs).