Up to five ‘practicants’ are selected, depending on application numbers, for the Center for Technology Licensing (CTL) Practicum, launched in 2019, an experiential internship program at CTL to gain valuable exposure to the process of commercialization of university-based research.

Selected practicants receive a robust training, are exposed to a wide range of emerging technologies, and gain experience in technology assessment, market research, and venture support. Read about one practicant’s experience: CTL Practicum, Your First Step on an Alternative Career Path with Your Graduate Degree.

Let us know if you are interested or would like to connect with Cornell alumni who are engaged in careers in this sector! Skills in tech transfer are applicable to many career paths beyond becoming a technology transfer professional: patent examiners, patent agents, business development, economic development, regulatory scientists, lawyers, licensing specialists, and entrepreneurs.

More information about the CTL Practicum. The next application deadline is end of October 2020.

The 2020 cohort:

Ithaca Office

Jin Liang, Research Associate, Weill Institute for Cell and Molecular Biology
Martin Liu, Graduate Student, Food Science
Julia Miller, Graduate Student, School of Integrated Plant Science [see her interview with Graduate Women in Ag Science]
Adam O’Neal, Graduate Student, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics
Luc Truong, Graduate Student, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics
Ruby Xu, M.S. Student, Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering

Weill Office

Rachel Leicher, Graduate Student, Tri-Institutional (Tri-I) Program in Chemical Biology (TPCB)
Olga Lyudovyk, Graduate Student, Tri-I Computational Biology and Medicine

Network with colleagues

Prior to this formal launch, several Careers Beyond Academia/BEST participants have had flexible internship-type experiences at CTL through a less formal arrangement, as described in Applying Experiential Learning to Career Development Training for Biomedical Graduate Students and Postdocs: Perspectives on Program Development and Design:

• Jin Liang
• Julia Miller
• Gunner Johnston (PhD’19 Immunology & Infectious Disease) now a technology associate
• Sabrina Solouki (PhD’19 Immunology & Infectious Disease) now a technical advisor
• Meera Govindaraghavan (postdoc ’14-’15) now a patent agent
• Madhur Srivastava (PhD’18 Biomedical Engineering) now an assistant research professor

And others in previous years!

• Parag Mahanti (PhD’13 Chemistry and Chemical Biology) now Director of Strategy and Operations, Managed Markets Business Planning at Novartis
• Maria Nikolou (postdoc alumna) now Entrepreneurship lead at the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford
• Soorena Izadifar (MBA’05) now in Licensing & Innovation Partnerships at ThermoFisher

Contact them to ask them about their experiences!

Selection Criteria for the CTL Practicum

• Demonstrated interest in technology transfer, innovation, entrepreneurship
• Commitment and availability for 10 hours per week
• Ability to attend patent meetings and inventor meetings with Licensing Officers
• Approval of the research advisor.