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City Club of Eugene: Brainwaves, Worms, & Detergents: Turning UO Research into Thriving Businesses

Recorded On: June 16, 2017

Air Date: June 19, 2017

The University of Oregon is striving to become a major research institution.  However, academic research is not just for the benefit of basic science.  The discoveries in the lab have applications far beyond the campus and, when properly managed, can result in thriving businesses generating real jobs within the Eugene economy.  The CEO’s of three Eugene companies that have benefited from U of O research will describe how the innovations they are making in their fields relate back to that research.  You will also learn how one innovation leads to a cascade of others and how the seemingly unrelated businesses are linked with each other in a synergistic fashion.

Come hear how UO’s basic research is being translated into thriving businesses with high paying jobs.

Don M. Tucker is the CEO and Chief Scientist at Electrical Geodesics, Inc. He is Professor of Psychology and Associate Director of the NeuroInformatics Center at the University of Oregon. He has published over the last 40 years on normal and abnormal psychology, brain function, and the electrophysiological methods for investigating brain activity.  Based on Tucker’s invention of the Geodesic Sensor Net, the dense array (64 to 256 channel) EEG systems made by Electrical Geodesics, Inc are now used in 1000 laboratories world wide, with 2400 publications with this technology now in the scientific literature.

Matt Beaudet. CEO of NemaMetrix, a Eugene Oregon Based biotechnology company whose mission is to enable scientists around the world to better study and understand human diseases by offering a more affordable and rapid system that supplements the traditional mouse-based research (hint – they use a worm!). Matt is an Oregon native and graduated as a Duck from the UO in 1997. He cut his teeth in biotechnology business here in Eugene at Molecular Probes, then Invitrogen, and finally Life Technologies before co-founding NemaMetrix in 2011.

Richard Geiger is CEO of Dune Sciences, Inc., a UO spin-out that uses science and green chemistry to create the Defunkify line of cleaning products that are both high performing and environmentally friendly.  He earned his Bachelor’s Degree at the University of Kansas and his Masters and PhD at Penn State. His industry experience ranges from advanced prosthetics and medical devices to high volume consumer products.   He has managed product-based startups in Silicon Valley, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.

Dr. David Conover is VP for Research and Innovation for the UO with responsibility for overseeing the university’s entire research enterprise.

Copyright KLCC, 2017

Love Cross joined KLCC in 2017. She began her public radio career as a graduate student, serving as Morning Edition Host for Boise State Public Radio in the late 1990s. She earned her undergraduate degree in Rhetoric and Communication from University of California at Davis, and her Master’s Degree from Boise State University. In addition to her work in public radio, Love teaches college-level courses in Communication and Public Speaking.