Young’s appointment as UW president bodes well for tech-transfer effort

The University of Washingtons Center for Commercialization (C4C) is most likely applauding the appointment of University of Utah President Michael Young as the UWs next president.

Youngs appointment, announced Monday by the UW Board of Regents, brings to Montlake an administrator who oversaw one of the nations leading endeavors in turning scholarly research into commercial enterprise. In March, Inc. magazine named the University of Utah a New Tech Powerhouse because, in 2009, the institution launched 19 startups from its six-year-old Technology Venture Development program, besting previous champion Massachusetts Institute of Technology with just a quarter of MIT’s $1.4 billion budget.

The UW has a similarly robust commercialization effort that should continue to flourish with Young as the UWs new leader. Since 2005, C4C, formerly UW Tech Transfer, has supported the commercialization of more than 100 projects, helping to spin out new companies such as Fate Therapeutics, EnerG2, MicroGREEN Polymers and Farecast.