Iowa State University


Inside Iowa State
May 1, 1998

ISURF finalists visit campus

by Skip Derra

Two finalists for the position of director of the ISU Research Foundation (ISURF) and the Office of Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer (OIPTT) will visit campus during the next two weeks. Additional candidate visits will be announced later.

The two finalists are Kenneth Kirkland, director of the Technology Commerciali-zation Office at Northern Illinois University, DeKalb; and Lawrence Kennedy, senior director of commercial licensing and acquisition at Schering-Plough Animal Health, Mundelein, Ill.

The ISURF director manages Iowa State's intellectual property, protects the university's copyrights and trademarks, and tracks royalties that result from ISU inventions. OIPTT works in coordination with ISURF to bring new ISU innovations to the marketplace. The new director will succeed Alan Paau, who left Iowa State in December.

Open forums

3 to 4 p.m., Memorial Union Oak Room

Kirkland, May 7

Kennedy, May 15

Kirkland has more than 20 years experience developing and acquiring new products and technologies. He has been at Northern Illinois since 1995. During that time, licensing and patent activity, the number of invention disclosures and the profile of the office have increased. From 1980 to 1995, Kirkland was manager of technology assessment and acquisition at American Cyanamid, Princeton, N.J., and from 1976 to 1979 he was technical manager at Cyanamid International Corp., Zurich, Switzerland.

Kirkland earned M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in weed science from Oregon State University, Corvallis.

Kennedy has been at Schering-Plough Animal Health since 1989. His recent focus has been on negotiating and closing technology licenses, commercial agreements and acquisitions with third-party technology partners. He also helped purchase a company, consolidated global contracts, established a database and set up working relationships with many university technology managers.

From 1984 to 1989 he was at Coopers Animal Health Inc., rising to vice president of business development, and from 1979 to 1984, he was with Welcome Animal Health Inc., becoming director of production.

Kennedy earned a B.A. in biology/chemistry and M.S. in microbiology from Emporia State University, Kansas, and an MBA from Rockhurst University, Kansas City.

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