If the city of Louisville is to become a bastion of research, entrepreneurship and start-up companies, it will take the University of Louisville working with private partners to make it happen. That’s the goal of the UofL Commercialization and Translation Council (CTC).

The CTC was established last year to help UofL faculty get their inventions to market.
At the CTC’s April meeting, four UofL research groups presented their ideas and commercialization plans for feedback and advice from more than a dozen local thought leaders.

The UofL faculty are working in the areas of nanotechnology, cybersecurity, data-driven mobile applications and cancer drugs. They pitched their projects and ideas to a CTC group which included investors, serial entrepreneurs, GLI’s Enterprise Corp, Chrysalis Ventures and others who have successfully found funding and launched or sold their ideas.

UofL Speed School of Engineering faculty members and business partners John Naber and Jim Graham were among the presenters.

“It gave us very good feedback along with questions and ideas we had not considered,” Naber said. “One member brought up a potential application of our technology that we had never thought of before.”

Ted Smith, the city of Louisville’s Chief Innovation Officer, is a member of the council.

“These researchers have made some very compelling discoveries and inventions which can become great companies with the diverse industry experience of the council” Smith said.

The council meets twice a year.

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Mark Hebert
Following a 28-year career as a radio and television reporter, Mark Hebert joined the University of Louisville as the Director of Media Relations in 2009, serving as the main spokesperson. In 2015, Mark was named Director of Programming and Production. He’s now producing and hosting a radio show about “all things UofL”, overseeing the university’s video and TV productions and promoting UofL’s research operation. Mark is best known for his 22 years as the political and investigative reporter for WHAS-TV in Louisville where he won numerous awards for breaking stories, exposing corruption and objectively covering Kentucky politics. In 2014, Mark was inducted into the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame.