Speaker Bio: 

Michael was hired in February, 2005 as the founding Director 
of WMU's intellectual property management and commercialization 
function.  For the past five years, he has had licensing, 
program management, and technology management responsibilities 
at the University of Michigan's College of Engineering.  
Significant accomplishments in this role include negotiating 
umerous technology commercialization deals with new and 
existing companies, and playing a key role in causing invention 
disclosures and technologies "commercialized" to increase by 
over 200 % since 1999.  He is also an author of several peer 
reviewed journal publications in the fields of environmental 
science and technology transfer.  He received his Ph.D. from 
MSU studying the adsorption/desorption kinetics and bioavailability 
of organic pollutants.  After completing his doctoral requirements, 
he then received a Master's degree in business from Purdue 
University.  His diverse educational background and business 
experiences give him a unique perspective on the challenges 
of transforming basic and applied research results into practical 
application.