Melba Kurman, the president and founder of Triple Helix Innovation, is a writer, analyst, veteran marketer and innovation strategist. She has over 17 years of first-hand experience in industry product development and university technology transfer at Microsoft and Cornell University. She in an expert in forward-thinking business strategies for emerging university technologies and university IP management. In addition to university innovation strategy, Melba writes about the social, economic and intellectual property potential (and challenges) of emerging technologies, most notably 3D printing.
One of Melba’s unique strengths is that she is fluent in both academic and corporate cultures, enabling her to come up with actionable strategy that is visionary, yet rooted in solid insight and analysis. Over the course of her career, Melba has conducted market research, created competitive strategy, and devised go-to-market strategies to launch new technologies and products. She’s currently working on a popular book on 3D printing that will be published in the fall of 2012 by Wiley Publishing.
Melba is a graduate of Cornell University and the University of Illinois. She is a former varsity swimmer, Peace Corps Volunteer and is currently striving to move up a belt level in Tae Kwon Do.
Writing
Melba Kurman writes in lucid and vivid language that appeals to a broad audience. Regardless of whether she’s writing about a complex policy issue, laying out a particular commercialization strategy, or making sense of a particular technology, Melba’s specialty is telling the story in an informative and engaging way. Melba was nominated by readers as a “Top Innovation Blogger of 2011″ on Innovation Excellence, landing the number seven slot out of a large group of noted innovation authors and experts.
Global readers share, forward, and tweet Melba’s articles on emerging technology and university innovation strategy hundreds to thousands of times on leading web publications such as VentureBeat, Slashdot, Businessweek online, Science Progress, and Innovation Excellence. Melba also writes articles for scholarly journals and popular trade publications.
Melba founded and writes the influential Tech Transfer 2.0 blog which was selected to be part of nature.com’s collection of notable science online publications. Her thoughtful and informative articles about university technology transfer and innovation policy dominate Google search rankings and are widely circulated by readers.
Melba’s other area of expertise is 3D printing, an emerging manufacturing technology that’s gaining traction in the consumer market, education, and medical and food industries. Melba was one of the first authors to deeply explore the social, regulatory and economic implications of 3D printing. She is currently co-authoring a popular book on 3D printing that will be published by Wiley trade press in the fall of 2012.
Speaking engagements
Melba is an engaging speaker regularly invited to appear at academic, government and corporate events. Melba speaks on issues involving intellectual property, university technology commercialization, science and technology policy and 3D printing. Her passion for storytelling, combined with her analytical, yet accessible approach, make her a favorite of audiences.
Melba is available to teach classes or workshops on the university research commercialization process to scientists and entrepreneurs. She enjoys interacting with and teaching students of all ages and backgrounds.
- Invited breakout session leader and Steering Committee member, International Commercialization Forum 2012, hosted by Ontario Centres of Excellence in Toronto, Canada, March, 2012
- Invited participant, “Technology Commercialization Seminar,” University of Utah TechVentures, March, 2012
- Invited plenary speaker, “University technology commercialization: what lies ahead.” ICAP Patent Brokerage Summit on Patent Monetization, San Francisco, November 16 & and 17, 2011
- Speaker, “Open Source Hardware Legal Frameworks” at the Open Hardware Summit annual meeting, New York, NY, September 2011
- Invited guest lecturer, “The long tail effect of 3D printers on product design and marketing,” Cornell CATALYST summer engineering camp, August, 2011
- Invited panelist, “3D printing comes to the nation’s capital,” Public Knowledge Organization, April, 2011
- Invited speaker on IP Marketing webinar series, “Internal Metrics and Benchmarking: New Era Measurement of TTO Performance and Impact,” March, 2011
- Invited guest lecturer, “From Idea to IPO” course at the New York Academy of Sciences, December, 2010
Interviews
Melba has been interviewed by NPR MarketPlace, CNN Money, Technology Transfer Tactics and other trade publications that deal with innovation strategy, emerging technology, and university technology transfer. She is happy to be interviewed on these topics.
- Comments featured, Campus Technology Magazine, “Industry-funded software research goes open source,” February, 2012
- Interview, Tech Transfer Tactics magazine, “U of Ulster’s evaluation license allows a trial period to “test drive” technologies,” January, 2012
- Feature interview, Newlogic, Inc. blog, “Patent reform’s effect on the university tech transfer office and R&D organization,” January, 2012
- Comments featured, Tech Transfer Tactics magazine, “TTO patent strategies run the gamut, from ‘singles’ to swinging for the fences,” October, 2011
- Interview, NPR Marketplace, “Why shop the racks when you can just hit print?” Summer, 2011
- Interview, CNN Money, “3D Printers launch small businesses,” June, 2011
- Interview, Tech Transfer Tactics magazine, “Consider offshoring to improve staff efficiency, expand your business reach,” March, 2011
- Feature article and interview, Tech Transfer Tactics magazine, “Health index’ could help TTOs measure their impact,” January, 2011
Consulting
Melba founded Triple Helix Innovation because she realized the growing importance of the university innovation ecosystem to our economic and social well-bring. As an expert in the university technology commercialization process, Melba’s goal is to help universities, industry and policymakers find better ways to transform innovative university research into beneficial products and services.
Triple Helix Innovation offers consulting services and custom reports to help universities improve and evolve their innovation strategies. Our services are versatile and we’re happy to discuss your unique needs with you. Examples of previous work include:
- Provide expert advice on university innovation strategy to university technology commercialization practitioners, businesses, regional governments and entrepreneurs
- Write and research custom, confidential reports and executive-ready presentations that assess the unique strengths of university technology transfer units; our reports include quantitative and qualitative assessments of a university’s patent portfolio, stack rankings of comparable institutions, discovery of untapped regional economic development opportunities and the technology transfer unit’s brand effectiveness
- Offer consulting services to university administrations and regional economic development agencies on university technology transfer processes, intellectual property policies and commercialization strategies
- Calculate the technology transfer health indexes of university patent portfolios; Melba Kurman created the concept of technology transfer health indexes
- Write about trends in university technology commercialization strategy to a worldwide readership on the popular Tech Transfer 2.0 blog
- Teach seminars to scientists, VCs and corporate R&D staff on university technology transfer strategies, including best practices in startup formation, licensing and marketing
- Author articles upon request; research and write commissioned reports and books on emerging game-changing technologies; our target reader is a non-technical audience to ensure maximal broad impact for our clients
Contact Melba to learn more about available consulting packages and reports.
Please feel free to contact Melba at melbak@triplehelixinnovation.com if you’d like to learn more about her activities or interests. Download Melba Kurman’s resume Follow Melba on twitter at @melbakurman.
