[news 2007-2008]

Professor's novel seed-funding initiative wins Kingston Technology Council Award of Excellence

PARTEQ-managed entrepreneurship fund supports faculty-student partnerships

For immediate release

Monday, Feb. 5, 2007

KINGSTON, ON – A unique seed funding program for research commercialization resulting from faculty-graduate collaborations was honoured at the seventh annual Kingston Technology Awards of Excellence  gala, held Saturday, Feb. 3.

The Atherton Entrepreneurship Award received the KTC's Innovative Program Award, in recognition of its contribution to “the growth of the technology sector by helping to attract and/or enhance business opportunities, investment, innovation, and talent to Kingston and area.”

The award, established in 2005 by Professor David Atherton of Queen's Dept. of Physics, provides seed money of up to $34,000 to assist young Queen's University entrepreneurs to launch an entrepreneurial science or engineering business in Canada. The award is administered by PARTEQ Innovations, the technology transfer office of Queen's University.

The funding program arose out of David Atherton's own experiences as a faculty entrepreneur. A prolific inventor who headed Queen's Applied Magnetics Group, he founded the Pressure Pipe Inspection Company  in 1997 based on his patented, portable electromagnetic technology for inspecting pre-stressed concrete water pipes. Committed to continuing his research, Professor encouraged one of his graduate students, Dr. Brian Mergelas, to take on the job of leading his new company. The result was a long and fruitful faculty-entrepreneur relationship, and the growth of a successful global company.

Prof. Atherton's experiences showed him that research collaborations between a professor and a graduate student are fertile ground for innovative technologies, but that they often lack the crucial startup money, contacts, and commercialization expertise needed to advance innovations beyond the lab bench.

“Students are the ones with the energy and enthusiasm to pursue innovative technologies as a commercial venture, but they benefit from the research expertise and project management experience of their research supervisor. They also need the contacts and other resources provided by the university's technology transfer office,” Professor Atherton says. “This award ensures that those needs are met.”

Last year two $34,000 awards were given to BKIN Technologies Ltd . of Kingston and Invenium Technologies Corp . of Toronto, two Queen's-generated spinoff companies that are developing advanced technologies in the field of biomedical assessment.

The Atherton Entrepreneurship Award was selected by a panel of judges from the venture capital and technology sectors in Ottawa, Toronto and Guelph. This year's honour was the eighth garnered by a PARTEQ-supported technology since the Awards of Excellence program began in 2001.

Nearly 250 guests from the region's technology, research, business and venture capital sectors attended this year's recognition event, which was held at the Four Points Sheraton in Kingston.

For more information about the Atherton Award, click here.

Contact:
John Molloy
613. 533. 6000 ext. 77478
jmolloy@parteqinnovations.com

About the Kingston Technology Council:
The Kingston Technology Council promotes the creation, growth and profitability of high technology enterprises in the Kingston region. A not-for-profit volunteer organization since 1991, the Kingston Technology Council provides a cohesive voice and source of focused community action to help grow the region's high-tech business sectors.
www.kingstontechnology.net