The Northeast Region has marked another successful year of technology transfer efforts by winning three 2009 FLC awards. The awards, which recognize outstanding technology transfer efforts from laboratories across the country, will be presented in Charlotte, North Carolina, on May 7.

From left: Kenneth Silber, Dana Mastrovito, William Davis, Stephen Langish (back), and Charles Gentile

Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory - Award for Excellence in Technology Transfer

Researchers at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have won a 2009 Award for Excellence in Technology Transfer for developing a highly accurate and cost-effective nuclear detection system for antiterrorism applications.

Shortly after the terror attack of September 11, 2001, the Department of Energy (DOE) asked all of its laboratories to identify technologies with antiterrorism applications. Using mostly off-the-shelf components, Charles Gentile and his colleagues in the PPPL Tritium Group configured a small portable and relatively inexpensive system to identify and locate the radioactive element tritium that had been deposited throughout the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR) vacuum chamber. Gentile and his team realized that this system, developed for PPPL's fusion research effort, would be very useful for detecting and identifying specific radionuclides suitable for use in a radiological dispersive device (RDD), commonly known as a "dirty bomb."

The PPPL system known as MINDS (miniature integrated nuclear detection system) is very small compared to other systems and has the distinct advantage of being able to differentiate between threatening and nonthreatening materials, thereby significantly reducing false positives. MINDS has applications in transportation and site security, scanning moving vehicles, luggage, and cargo vessels; and it could be employed at workplace entrances, post offices, tollbooths, airports, commercial shipping ports, and in police cruisers to detect the transport of RDD nuclear materials.

The system has been transferred to a licensee, Insitech, Inc., a Partnership Intermediary representing the business interests of the Armament Research, Development, and Engineering Center (ARDEC) at the U.S. Army's Picatinny Arsenal in Morris County, New Jersey. In turn, Insitech has sublicensed MINDS for use in a number of locations, including shipping containers at seaports.

Lynn Murray

Lynn Murray, John A. Volpe Transportation Center - Harold Metcalf Award

Lynn Murray has been selected as the winner of the 2009 Harold Metcalf Award for her sustained and exemplary service as FLC Representative for Volpe National Transportation Systems Center, as a member of the Executive Board and, most significantly, as chair of the Education and Training (E&T) Committee.

Before stepping down from her seven-year tenure as E&T Committee Chair in September 2008, Murray revitalized the FLC's education and training program to ensure that technology transfer professionals from the Consortium's member laboratories and agencies, as well as technology transfer professionals from industry, academia, and state and local governments, receive continuous and up-to-date training on all aspects of technology transfer so they are fully cognizant of the various technology transfer processes and mechanisms and know how to use them effectively to accomplish the Consortium's technology transfer mission.

In addition, Murray conceived of and led the development of nontraditional methods of promulgating technology transfer training to better serve the FLC's geographically diverse membership. To reinforce the training provided at national meetings and to facilitate distance learning, in 2006 she directed the development, marketing, and distribution of the successful and popular 21-hour T2 Video Training Program, which consists of 11 DVDs, 3 CDs and printed and electronic copies of the training presentations, in professionally produced boxed sets.

Ms. Murray's leadership and contributions as E&T Committee Chair have been valuable to both FLC members and participants in the educational and training events associated with annual membership meetings. The quality standards established under her leadership set a very high bar for all who follow her in the position.

Jesse Erlich

Jacob (Jesse) Erlich, Burns & Levinson, LLP - FLC Outstanding Service Award

Jesse Erlich, a Partner at Burns & Levinson LLP, has won the 2009 FLC Outstanding Service Award for his longstanding contributions to the Consortium. Drawing on his years of expertise in intellectual property (IP), Mr. Erlich has advised the FLC on IP issues, as well as presented at FLC training sessions on a wide range of IP topics and government contract matters, Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) programs, and homeland security issues. He has also assisted the FLC's Washington, D.C., office with its interactions with Congress, and has always made himself available to all government personnel to answer questions relating to IP and technology transfer.

Erlich represents a wide array of clients such as universities and small and large technology companies in diverse technological fields. He provides advice on patents and other forms of IP, licensing and government-related matters, and is also involved with the preparation and prosecution of patent applications (U.S. and foreign). In a representative case, Erlich obtained IP protection for a client, and thereafter was instrumental in negotiating and preparing agreements transferring a substantial portion of the IP to a major company.

Currently on the faculty of the Advanced Licensing Institute at Franklin Pierce Law School, Erlich also served on the faculty of The National Intellectual Property Law Institute, Postgraduate Program in Intellectual Property and The Intellectual Property Institute for Corporate Counsel, both in Washington, D.C. A frequent lecturer and speaker, Erlich has been asked to appear before groups ranging from the WPI Venture Forum to Government Patent Law Association Conferences and the Franklin Pierce Law School Annual Licensing Program to the American Association of State Colleges and Universities.

The Northeast Region congratulates the winners on a job well done.