UNT Chemistry Professors Recognized for Innovative Development | College of Science
December 19, 2019

UNT Chemistry Professors Recognized for Innovative Development

Banner year in tech commercialization signals upward trajectory for UNT-

Read the full story at UNT's Research & Innovation

This year marked a banner year for technology commercialization at UNT, but it's only the beginning. Licensing revenues reached a record level, and UNT faculty filed forty-four disclosures of inventions and intellectual property with commercial potential in 2019, compared to only seven in 2015.

In 2019, royalty revenues totaled $425,000 from UNT technology licensed for commercialization.

Technology developed in university research labs are owned by the institution, but under UNT policy, the inventor or creator and UNT share equally the royalties earned by commercialization. When commercially viable, a company is sought to help develop the product for the market where it can be used. Royalties are then paid to the university where they can be reinvested into more research and education, as well as to the researcher who invented it. Licensees often sponsor research in the investigator's lab, and graduate students are often hired by the company when they complete their degrees. It's a win-win for the university and the inventor.

"We're trying to be one of the universities that defines the field of university-industry collaborations" Michael Rondelli (Associate Vice President for Innovation and Commercialization) says, adding that part of successful technology commercialization is creating an atmosphere where researchers see their work from the point of view of companies that might want to develop it.

Rondelli and Steven Tudor, director of licensing who Rondelli brought to UNT in 2017 to tackle intellectual property evaluation and search for potential commercial partners, cite inventors who have different ways of looking at their research and how it can make it out of the laboratory -- UNT Chemistry professors Dr. Guido Verbeck and Dr. Oliver Chyan.

Verbeck holds seven patents for his inventions, and UNT has licensed a breathalyzer for detecting opioids to Frisco-based InspectIR, with more technology licenses in the works.

"Guido Verbeck is very focused on working with companies, his comfort working with companies allows for sponsored research and commercialization at a fast pace," Rondelli says.

In 2019, Chyan received $157,000, the largest royalty distribution to date at UNT, for a method to detect flaws in microchips. Rondelli says that not only are more licensees expected for the technology, Chyan's graduate students are in high-demand with microchip manufacturers.

Rondelli hopes these successes will influence more of UNT's creative community to see new possibilities.

"We want the technology to impact lives," he says. "It's important to generate royalties, but the central focus is on making an impact on humans. That's what we do. Royalties follow from the adoption of our researchers' creation into products used every day."