Contact:Barb Pruitt, Kauffman Foundation, (816) 932-1288,
bpruitt@kauffman.orgCathee Johnson Phillips, National Postdoctoral Association,
cjphillips@nationalpostdoc.orgKauffman Foundation and National Postdoctoral Association will award $10,000 to innovator who has benefited society by bringing research to market
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (July 20, 2009) — The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and the
National Postdoctoral Association (NPA) announced today that nominations have opened for the inaugural
Kauffman Foundation Outstanding Postdoctoral Entrepreneur Award, which recognizes and celebrates a scientific researcher who has successfully commercialized his or her discoveries through entrepreneurship. The researcher must have completed postdoctoral research in the United States at some point in his/her career. A second award, the Emerging Postdoctoral Entrepreneur Award, will recognize a postdoctoral researcher who is seeking
to commercialize his or her intellectual property.
"When researchers take initiative in getting their innovations to market, they create powerful benefits for society as a whole," said Sandy Miller, director of the Kauffman Foundation's Entrepreneur Postdoctoral Fellowship program. "The winner of this award will serve as a role model for the postdoctoral research community and inspire entrepreneurial activity among his or her peers."
Nominations for the Outstanding Postdoctoral Entrepreneur award are open to scientific researchers who have completed postdoctoral research in the United States and have founded companies to commercialize their intellectual property. The Emerging Postdoctoral Entrepreneur award is open to those currently holding postdoctoral positions in the United States who are actively working to commercialize their research. (Go
here to see more details about eligibility requirements.)
The nomination package asks nominees to tell the story of their journeys from postdoctoral research to successful business leadership, inviting them to share the impact on society they have seen from bringing their discoveries to market. A blue-ribbon panel of successful researcher-entrepreneurs, led by Cathee Johnson Phillips, executive director of the National Postdoctoral Association, will judge the submissions. Nominees will be evaluated primarily on their technical innovation and the social value their enterprises have produced.
The researcher selected to win the Outstanding Postdoctoral Entrepreneur Award will receive a $10,000 honorarium, and the winner of the Emerging Postdoctoral Entrepreneur Award will receive a $2,500 honorarium. Both awards will be presented at the National Postdoctoral Association's 8th Annual Meeting on March 12-14, 2010, in Philadelphia.
Nomination forms are available at the National Postdoctoral Association's
website. Nominations must be submitted electronically or by mail by Nov. 2, 2009.
