Herringshaw named industrial liasion and intellectual property officer
Contact: Rene Abadie
10/9/07
HAMMOND – Dennis Herringshaw has been appointed industrial liaison and intellectual property officer at Southeastern Louisiana University, a new position designed to increase partnership opportunities with area businesses and to coordinate technology transfer activities.
He previously served as vice president of technology and corporate partnerships at the University of New Orleans Research and Technology Foundation, a position he held since 2001. He also served as director of research initiatives for the Louisiana Board of Regents, where he managed a program to evaluate university technologies for commercialization and created a program in conjunction with the Louisiana Technology Transfer Office.
At Southeastern, Herringshaw will work with area companies to increase collaborative ventures with university faculty, internships and employment opportunities for students, and other cooperative arrangements. In addition, he will oversee the protection, marketing and licensing of the university’s intellectual property, generally faculty-developed inventions or innovations that have commercial applications.
“Mr. Herringshaw’s appointment fills a growing need at Southeastern to increase our outreach to area businesses and industries and to enhance our relationships with these firms,” said John L. Crain, provost and vice president for academic affairs. “His knowledge of industry and background in technology transfer will help bridge the gap that can sometimes develop between academic institutions and industry. Just as our Southeast Louisiana Business Center serves as a portal for area businesses to tap faculty expertise, we expect this new office will serve a similar function for more technologically-oriented industries.”
Applications for several patents by Southeastern faculty are now pending, and one of Herringshaw’s responsibilities will be to assist in the marketing of emerging technologies to appropriate industries.
“We need to instill the idea of intellectual property protection in the faculty so they see this potential early at the proposal and research level,” Herringshaw said.
Herringshaw will also help coordinate the activities of SEAL – “Student Entrepreneurs as Active Leaders” -- a student-managed, faculty-supervised program at Southeastern designed to provide scientific and technological services to area industrial clients. Funded by a state Board of Regents grant, the program enables students to work closely with industry on solving scientific and technological problems.
“This is an exciting program for students, and to make it successful we’ll have to work through some contractual and intellectual property issues,” he said. “We hope to develop the policies and procedures so that the idea can spread to other universities.
A resident of Slidell, Herringshaw holds a master’s degree in geology with a minor in engineering from the University of Toledo and an associate’s degree in electronic engineering. He has worked as an exploration geophysicist for Mobil Oil and as program manager for Neptune Sciences where he managed a U.S. Navy environmental assessment program and headed field logistics teams in Florida, Australia and the Arctic. He has also served as an adjunct instructor in earth sciences at Southeastern’s St. Tammany Center.
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