SPEAKER BIOS Charles Cleland, Ph.D. USDA National Program Director Charles Cleland received his B.A. from Wabash College in 1961, and a Ph.D. in Plant Physiology from Stanford University in 1966. He spent two years at Michigan State University (1966‐68) as a postdoctoral research fellow studying the hormonal control of flowering. He continued his research on the physiology and biochemistry of flowering as an Assistant Professor of Biology at Harvard University (1968‐74), Visiting Assistant Professor of Botany at the University of North Carolina‐ Chapel Hill (1974‐75), and Plant Physiologist at the Smithsonian Institution Environmental Research Center (1975‐87). During this period, he authored over 30 scientific publications. Dr. Cleland joined the USDA as Director of the SBIR program in May of 1987. In 1998 he received a National Tibbetts Award in recognition of his contributions to the SBIR program. Today he continues to work with the USDA SBIR program as one of nine National Program Leaders with responsibility for different parts of the SBIR Program. Mahendra K. Jain, Ph.D. Senior Vice President KSTC and Executive Director KSEF Mahendra Jain is the founding Executive Director of the Kentucky Science and Engineering Foundation (KSEF) and Senior
Vice President of the Kentucky Science and Technology Corporation (KSTC) in Lexington, Kentucky. In his present position, Dr. Jain is fostering partnerships between academic, industrial and state institutions in building and expanding Kentucky’s scientific and engineering capacity to attract external research funds from all sources, to help advance research ideas and to build a pipeline of technologies. In addition, Mahendra has proactively pursued the growth of the Federal SBIR and STTR Programs in the state through outreach and state‐funded assistance programs, was the recipient of the Tibbetts Award in 2006, and currently also serves as the Science Director for Kentucky Space. Before joining KSTC, Mahendra worked at several universities in the USA, Europe and India. He also worked at MBI International, a biotechnology R&D company in Lansing, Michigan where he was involved in technology development and transfer. After receiving his Ph.D. in microbiology in 1972, Dr. Jain received and managed several million dollars in research grants and contracts from federal, state, and industrial sources. He is the author of 11 United States patents, one Canadian patent and over 120 research papers, articles and book chapters. Edward G. Jameson, CPA CEO Jameson & Company LLC Ed Jameson is a second‐generation CEO of Jameson & Company LLC, which was founded by his father Gordon in 1977. Ed joined our firm in 1988, having previously served as a senior consultant in the small business and tax
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SPEAKER BIOS Christopher O’Gwin DOE SBIR/STTR Program Manager Chris serves, among other duties, as the DOE SBIR/STTR Commercialization Assistance and Outreach program manager. In this capacity, he provides the overall direction and leadership for implementing these programs at DOE and on matters concerning overall program operations and policy issues impacting both the SBIR and STTR programs. Chris has worked for the Department for many years, holding positions of leadership in both management and technical organizations. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Education and Economics from Longwood University and a Master of Science in Government from the Johns Hopkins University. David Sikora DoD‐Air Force SBIR/STTR Program Manager Mr. David Sikora is the program manager for the Air Force Small Business Innovative Research / Small Business Technology Transfer (SBIR/STTR) program. He manages the budget for the program whose mission is to serve the technology needs of the Air Force warfighter by stimulating small business technology research while providing the government with cost‐effective technical and scientific solutions to challenging problems. Mr. Sikora previously served as the Air Force Technology Transfer
departments at Price Waterhouse, Boston. Ed has helped clients secure billions of dollars in government grants and contracts. He has extensive experience in the indirect rate recovery process and has settled hundreds of incurred cost submissions. In addition to overseeing all client relationships, Ed consults on cost recovery, strategic and tactical management issues, and contract and grant cost procurement. Rajesh Mehta, Ph.D. NSF SBIR/STTR Program Director Rajesh Mehta joined the National Science Foundation as a SBIR/STTR Program Director for Nanotechnology, Advanced Materials and Manufacturing in August 2012. Prior to joining NSF, he was a senior research technologist at Kodak where his 26‐year career spanned work at Kodak Research Laboratories, and Manufacturing Research and Engineering Organization. His work covered a broad range of materials science based technologies related to photographic film and paper manufacturing, thermal, inkjet, and electro‐photographic printing, and OLED device manufacturing. He was granted several Kodak achievement awards for the scientific merit and commercial impact of his contributions. He also holds over 32 U.S. patents. Rajesh has a B. Tech. degree in Chemical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Chemical Engineering from Penn State, and a M.S. degree in New Product Development from Rochester Institute of Technology.
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SPEAKER BIOS and a member of the IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society. She holds a BS degree in Mathematics from Duquesne University and an MBA from George Mason University. Robert Vinson NIH SBIR/STTR Assistant Program Manager Rob Vinson serves as the SBIR/STTR Program Analyst in the Office of Extramural Programs, Office of Extramural Research, at the NIH. In this role he is responsible for providing resources and critical information to the small business community and Federal staffers. His duties include providing technical assistance to SBIR Phase I awardees by managing the NIH Niche Assessment Program. Prior to joining the SBIR/STTR office, he was a Senior Grants Policy Analyst at the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI). In that role, he managed initiatives and special projects on a variety of grants and administrative policy issues. Rob had been with NHLBI since 1993 where his career began as a Grants Management Specialist and rose to the positions of Team Leader, Grants Management Officer (GM), and Branch Chief. Rob recently served on a short detail to DHHS in the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology where he was part of a cadre of GMOs responsible for establishing Standard Operating Procedures and allocating American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds. Additionally, for five years prior to joining NIH, Rob was a commercial loan officer with an emphasis on small business and marketing.
program manager and has a wealth of experience leveraging industry, academia, and private sector research. Before entering government service, He worked as a design/project engineer in the paper machine and environmental equipment industries. Mr. Sikora received his bachelor’s degree in Engineering Technology from the University of Dayton and his M.B.A. from Wright State University. Elissa ‘Lisa’ Sobolewski DHS SBIR Program Director Elissa ‘Lisa’ Sobolewski is the SBIR Program Director for the Department of Homeland Security. Ms. Sobolewski has over 25 years of experience managing high risk, high payoff R&D initiatives funded by the Departments of Homeland Security, Commerce, and Defense. She joined the DHS Science and Technology (S&T) Directorate in January 2006, became the DHS SBIR Program Manager in June 2006, and then became the DHS SBIR Program Director in January 2009.Prior to joining DHS, Lisa held numerous management and technical positions at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Gaithersburg, MD. She was a Program Manager at DARPA for nine years, responsible for managing the RF and microwave/millimeter wave programs. Lisa also held positions at the David Taylor Naval Ship Research and Development Center, and at the Department of Defense Technology Analysis Office. She worked for McDonnell Douglas Astronautics Company (Engineering Services) on various government contracts supporting the USMC. Lisa is an IEEE member,
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