Entrepreneurial Leadership @Clarkson - Spring 2024

ENTREPRENEURIAL LEADERSHIP@CLARKSON

Spring 2024

Welcome to Our Entrepreneurial Leadership @ Clarkson Newsletter! ere, at Clarkson, we are reimagining the future of higher education and business learning.

That means reevaluating our own future as a world-leading, STEM-focused institution to create even more value and better outcomes for our students, while contributing thought leadership and applied research to solve the world’s most pressing challenges, including climate change, poverty, the role of new technologies, such as AI, and more. It also means incorporating sustainability into everything we do to support the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and directing our educational offerings and research to new global realities.

In this issue, we highlight some of our achievements in these areas, including: • WOMEN ON ENTREPRENEURIAL ENGINEERING AND SCIENCE. Meet three researchers who are developing their own start-ups to commercialize new technologies to address worldwide environmental problems and positively impact society.

• GLOBAL ENGAGEMENT. REAL-WORLD IMPACT. Participation in global research and conferences contributes to knowledge sharing and enhances our reputation, while hosting international scholars on our campuses supports student learning and research collaborations. This year, we welcomed Visiting Fulbright Scholar Imane Magrez, while our own faculty participated in global conferences, including new book launches at the European International Business Academy and the Iberoamerican Academy of Management conferences.

• NATIONAL INNOVATION RECOGNITION. John Milne, the Neil ’64 and Karen Bonke Endowed Chair and Associate Professor in Engineering & Management, has been elected a Fellow of The National Academy of Inventors. This is the highest professional distinction awarded to inventors.

• THE PRESIDENT’S CHALLENGE. The annual University-wide innovation competition challenges students to use the knowledge, creativity and skills developed at Clarkson to create a winning idea or product.

This year, students were tasked with developing a collectible item promoting Clarkson’s hands-on, interdisciplinary education to prospective students. We are proud to announce that the grand prize was won by a team of engineering & management students from the Reh School of Business!

So many innovations are Made in Clarkson! I invite you to be part of it.

Enjoy the reading, keep tuned into our new developments and remember: Think entrepreneurship, think Clarkson!

— Professor Christian Felzensztein, PhD Reh Family Endowed Chair in Entrepreneurial Leadership & Co-Director Reh Center for Entrepreneurship

Christian Felzensztein

Top 36 in the Nation — Best Entrepreneurship Programs U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT 2023

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WOMEN IN ENTREPRENEURIAL STEM Meet three women in engineering and science who are using their innovative technologies to solve global environmental and health-related problems. Their research also provides valuable training for Clarkson students to develop the skills necessary to contribute to a sustainable entrepreneurial society.

Contaminated water flows through the reactor, which is installed directly into the well, where ultrasound technology destroys the PFAS.

Prof. Andreescu and her research team have founded SensoLife to commercialize this technology. The team has received funding to advance the development of low-cost environmental sensors into viable prototypes and commercial products, including a system to rapidly measure PFAS contaminants in water and a system to measure heavy metal exposure.

SENSING SOLUTIONS FOR HEALTH & THE ENVIRONMENT

Michelle Crimi

SAFER DRINKING WATER

“PFAS are a suite of thousands of industrial chemicals that are pervasive in the environment, including our water supply,” says MICHELLE CRIMI, Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering and Dean of the Graduate School. “They were used in commercial and industrial products for over 50 years and have been linked to adverse health outcomes.”

Prof. Crimi has led the development of a novel treatment technology to remove PFAS contaminants from groundwater that is more cost-effective and energy-efficient than standard approaches. Through her company, RemWell, she is commercializing this in situ remediation technology, which is deployed in a horizontal well below ground.

The well captures and funnels water, which avoids the expensive and energy-intensive pumping of water for above-ground treatment.

SILVANA ANDREESCU, the Egon Matijevic Endowed Chair in Chemistry and Biomolecular Science, is an expert in analytical measurements, nanotechnology and sensing, with particular emphasis on the development of portable biosensing technologies. “My lab has developed a variety of sensing platforms, which incorporate innovations in colloids and surface chemistry and can detect and respond to specific targets in real-world environments. These sensors monitor trace levels of environmental contaminants, food freshness and clinically relevant biomarkers associated with medical conditions.”

Silvana Andreescu

Anna Tverdokhlebova

IMPROVED DRUG DELIVERY

ANNA TVERDOKHLEBOVA, a PhD candidate in chemistry and graduate teaching assistant, is working on research to develop a pHresponsive system with the potential to revolutionize therapeutic drug delivery.

“The pH responsive systems work with biocompatible carrier materials (like naturally derived alginate hydrogel),” she says. “By means of reversible pH changes, possibly induced by an intrinsic environment in the human body, or produced locally using electrochemical redox reactions of substances that are naturally occurring in the human serum, one is able to achieve on-demand ‘drug’ release profiles. This will ensure prolonged drug delivery, thus reducing the amount of invasive treatment procedures.”

ENTREPRENEURIAL EDUCATION Clarkson’s entrepreneurship programs were well represented at the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE) Conference 2024.

ASHLEY SWEENEY, director of Clarkson Ignite, and JAMEY HOOSE, director of The Shipley Center for Innovation, attended the conference in Birmingham, Alabama, and shared their best practices. Sweeney served as the track chair for Curricular Programming, while Hoose joined a panel discussing the role of educational institutions in fostering entrepreneurial ecosystems.

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GLOBAL COLLABORATIONS

NEW BOOK ON INTERNATIONAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP CHRISTIAN FELZENSZTEIN, Reh Family Endowed Chair in Entrepreneurial Leadership, is co-editor, along with SASHA FUERST of the EGADE Business School, Tec de Monterrey in Mexico, of the new book, A Research Agenda for International Entrepreneurship, published by Edward Elgar Publishing.

Recently launched at the Iberoamerican Academy of Management in the Dominican Republic and at the European International Business Academy in Lisbon, Portugal, the book addresses the intersection of the fields of international business and entrepreneurship, offering a multi-dimensional analysis of international entrepreneurship.

“Each chapter [provides] a unique perspective on some of the most important IE research questions of the post-COVID era.”

“This must-read collection of articles provides a comprehensive overview and path for moving the field forward.”

– PROFESSOR MARTINA MUSTEEN San Diego State University

– PROFESSOR STEPHANIE FERNHABER Butler University

Book launch at the Iberoamerican Academy of Management. [L-R] Len J. Treviño, President of the Iberoamerican Academy of Management and Distinguished Professor of International Business at Florida Atlantic University; Christian Felzensztein; and Tamara Mera Cury, Dean Business School at Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre Y Maestra, Dominican Republic.

FULBRIGHT VISITING SCHOLAR AT CLARKSON

Imane Magrez and Christian Felzensztein

IMANE MAGREZ is currently a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at the Reh School of Business. Magrez hails from the Mohamed First University of Oujda, Morocco, where she conducts research at the intersection of strategic management, industrial marketing and entrepreneurship. She was awarded the Fulbright to expand her expertise and international networks, including a collaboration with Professor CHRISTIAN FELZENSZTEIN on

WORLD-RENOWNED SCHOLARS RETURN TO CLARKSON Professor LEO PAUL DANA from Canada, is visiting Clarkson and collaborating on new research projects with entrepreneurship faculty. Prof. Dana is ranked No. 1 in the world for research productivity in the field of indigenous entrepreneurship and small business. Professor DAVID CRICK, from the University of Ottawa, visited the Reh School of Business and gave a talk to MBA students. Prof.

Crick’s is ranked third in the world for entrepreneurial marketing.

research related to the role of entrepreneurship in helping solve poverty in emerging economies. A joint publication on the topic is currently under review in Entrepreneurship & Regional Development. The two also participated in the seminar “Entrepreneurship and Property Rights” at the Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University and the 2023 Babson College Entrepreneurship Research Conference in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Scaling Up Regional Entrepreneurship

Professor CHRISTIAN FELZENSZTEIN and AFSANEH BAGHERI, from the University of Lincoln in the U.K., are researching scaling-up strategies for startups located at the periphery, which may help to create public policies for regional entrepreneurship development in New York state.

Their work is currently under review in the International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research.

Associate Professor Amber Stephenson Awarded Lectureship

Christian Felzensztein and David Crick

Associate Professor AMBER STEPHENSON was recently awarded the Herbert Vaughan Distinguished Lectureship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Her research focuses on reducing barriers to entice more primary care physicians into entrepreneurial leadership roles.

Top 10 for Best Entrepreneurial Studies Nationwide COLLEGE FACTUAL 2023

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— CLARKSON PRESIDENT ’S CHALLENGE —

560 Student Participants — 155 Great Ideas — 28 Faculty & 125 Alumni Mentors 8 Categories, 8 Awards — 1 Grand Prize Winner

ANNUAL CHALLENGE TRANSFORMS THE CAMPUS INTO A UNIVERSITY-WIDE INVENTOR’S LAB Each year, the Clarkson University president challenges students to apply their knowledge and skills to develop a unique solution to a real-world problem, while competing for startup funds and prizes in a University-wide competition.

This year’s President’s Challenge focused on the development of ideas and products to get prospective students excited about the hands-on, interdisciplinary education they will receive by attending Clarkson.

President MARC CHRISTENSEN tasked

current students with creating a Clarksonthemed collectible for distribution to prospective students.

More than 500 undergraduate and graduate students representing all majors The 2023 President’s Challenge Grand Prize-winning team. (L-R) competed to develop Joseph Mascolino ’23 Allyson Lloyd ’24 Corey Sulca ’23; Angelica a collectible in one of DeGuardia ’24; and Alexander Koproski ’23. eight categories.

Five E&M seniors a stress ball, a tensegrity phone stand, a were the Grand Prize winners of the cylindrical puzzle maze, a “Knight Light” and a President’s Challenge. The team created Newton’s cradle.

Clarkson-themed JengaTM blocks featuring In the spring 2024 semester, the fun facts about the University. Other prizewinning teams’ collectibles will be refined, winning items included LEGOTM replicas of manufactured and then distributed to the Rocketry SPEED team’s rocket and the prospective students during Clarkson Baja SAE SPEED team’s all-terrain vehicle, as Accepted Students Days. well as Clarkson-themed objects, including

PROF. JOHN MILNE ELECTED FELLOW OF INVENTORS JOHN MILNE, associate professor and Neil ’64 and Karen Bonke Endowed Chair in Engineering & Management in the Reh School of Business, was elected a 2023 Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors. Election as an Academy Fellow is the highest professional distinction awarded solely to inventors.

Prof. Milne is an expert in supply chain optimization planning and scheduling methods and is the inventor or co-inventor of more than 40 U.S. patents, predominantly focused on software methods for optimizing

supply chain planning and scheduling. He joined the Clarkson faculty in 2010, after a 26-year career at IBM, where he was named a Master Inventor and co-chair of an Invention Review Board. His patented innovations led to the company reducing inventory by $80 million in 1999.

“After inventing at IBM, it’s been my pleasure to work with Clarkson students,” he says. To date, more than 250 of Milne’s Engineering & Management students at Clarkson have filed over 100 U.S. patents.

Top 20 Best Alumni Networks in the Nation THE PRINCETON REVIEW – BEST 389 COLLEGES: 2024 EDITION

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DAVID D. REH SCHOOL OF BUSINESS

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