Faculty conflict of interest issues probed at WARF Gilson Discovery Series
Conflicts of interest for university faculty members who start their own companies will be the subject of a panel discussion on Monday, Feb. 18 at 5 p.m. at the University of Wisconsin–Madison Fluno Center, 601 University Avenue.
The event, part of the Gilson Discovery Series sponsored by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), is free and open to the public. The panel discussion will be followed by a networking reception at 6 p.m.
Interested individuals can RSVP to receive complimentary parking at the Fluno Center by contacting Devon Cournoyer by Feb. 15 at (608) 890-1621.
The panel discussion, "Conflict of Interest: When Faculty Start Their Own Companies," will be led by Brian Fox, chair of the UW–Madison Conflict of Interest Committee, and Kathy Irwin, distinguished legal counsel for the university, who will provide an overview of the process and discuss some cases that have occurred on the Madison campus. UW–Madison faculty entrepreneurs Nick Abbott (chemical and biological engineering) and Jim Dahlberg (genetics) have successfully navigated these issues and will offer advice gained from their experiences.
The Gilson Series is made possible by a gift bequeathed in 2002 to WARF by UW–Madison alumnus, professor and inventor Warren Gilson. Since 2005, WARF has hosted the series in Gilson’s name to help support entrepreneurship and to nurture the exchange of ideas between the university, small businesses and the larger Madison business community.
In 1925, WARF was established as the world’s first university-based technology transfer office. It support world-class research at UW–Madison by funding research, protecting the intellectual property of university faculty, staff and students, and by licensing inventions resulting from their work to benefit the world.
