BIA/NYS member incubators and their tenant-clients will receive favored consideration from the Center for New Technology Enterprise, a new independent nonprofit "trans-disciplinary" resource for technology commercialization founded by Frederick A. Provorny, who was the Harold R. Tyler Professor of Law and Technology at Albany Law School and the founding director of the first New York State Science and Technology Law Center (a NYSTAR-supported program that has since been re-established at the Syracuse University College of Law).

The goal of this new web-based center (headquartered in Rockville, Maryland, but with a global reach) is to provide experiential education to students (usually in graduate and professional schools) from a wide variety of disciplines by working in teams with research institutions and qualified emerging technology companies. In carrying out its educational mission, the Center also promotes economic development and job creation in the high tech and life sciences sectors by providing start-ups with a comprehensive suite of business, legal, regulatory and other services using teams of students under the supervision of members of a multinational network of volunteer professional-services firms.

Unlike the original Science and Technology Law Center, which used law students only, this Center adopts a "trans-disciplinary" approach combining resources in law, business, and science and engineering. Student labor is charged out at low rates, subject to a cap, and the supervising professionals do not charge for their services at all. The Center is also assembling an advisory board of successful serial entrepreneurs, corporate executives and investors to mentor the students and clients. Companies and entrepreneurs must be vetted through the Center’s selection process – an integral part of the Center’s educational program – before they can be accepted into the program.

Over the next two weeks, entrepreneurs affiliated with our supporting member RPI Incubator Program and the Montpellier Agglomeration Business Innovation Centre are exchanging business-development visits. Click the preceding link to read coverage in the Albany Times Union. Both incubators are past recipients of the NBIA Incubator of the Year Award.

Anil Dhundale, Ph.D., most recently the director of scientific affairs at Stony Brook University's NYSTAR-supported Center for Biotechnology, has been named executive director of incubator programs at the university.

Stony Brook's three-incubator program is a founding supporting member of the association, and we warmly congratulate Anil. Ann-Marie Scheidt, Ph.D., the university's director of economic development, will remain a member of our board.

Following is a statement released to the Stony Brook community by Dean of Engineering and Vice President for Economic Development Yacov Shamash:

To All Faculty and Staff:

I am pleased to announce that Anil Dhundale, Ph.D. has been appointed as the new Executive Director for our Stony Brook Business Incubators. In this role Anil will be responsible for Stony Brook's Long Island High Technology Incubator (LIHTI), the Incubator at Calverton as well as our Software Incubator. His broad based experience with early stage technology commercialization will facilitate mentoring of start-up companies to maximize their growth. We look forward to success under Anil's thoughtful, supportive, constructive leadership in guidance of our incubators.

Dr. Yacov Shamash
Vice President for Economic Development and Dean CEAS

Our member Adirondack Regional Business Incubator has released its June 2008 newsletter. For access, click the previous link.

Edmund Egan and Bruce Holm — both faculty members at SUNY's University at Buffalo and both closely associated with the anchor tenant of our supporting member UB Technology Incubator — were honored with the university's first annual Faculty Entrepreneur Award.

Dr. Egan is the president and CEO of ONY, Inc., and Dr. Holm (who is the executive director of the UB NYS Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences) is the co-inventor of the underlying technology, a lung surfactant to prevent respiratory distress in premature babies.

Based on research by UB, University of Rochester, and University of Western Ontario, ONY was founded in 1985 and received FDA approval in 1999. Since then the surfactant has been administered to more than 250,000 premature babies. ONY is the largest and anchor tenant of the UB Technology Incubator. Congratulations to Drs. Egan and Holm!