Jesus Soriano, program director at the National Science Foundation, will be a keynote speaker at the Oct. 5 Commercialization and Entrepreneurship Summit on the IUPUI campus. It will start at 8:30 a.m. in Hine Hall Auditorium, 875 W. North St. The event is open to the public, although registration is required. Women and underrepresented minorities are especially encouraged to attend.

Soriano joined the NSF in February 2012 as SBIR/STTR program director for biomedical and smart health technologies after 20 years of international experience in executive leadership in the biopharmaceutical and nonprofit sectors, startup formation and funding, technology commercialization, and academic teaching and research. He holds an MBA in corporate finance from the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School; a Ph.D. in medical sciences from the University of Geneva, Switzerland; and an M.D. from the University of Alicante, Spain.

He spoke to Crimson Catalyst about the importance of encouraging women and underrepresented minority researchers to commercialize their work and become entrepreneurs.

“U.S. leadership in science and engineering, which leads to new discoveries and innovations, relies on the participation of people from all parts of society. Yet, women and other minority groups remain underrepresented in science, technology, engineering and mathematics,” he said. “NSF recognizes the tremendous potential of women and underrepresented groups in innovation. We hope the Accelerating Women and Underrepresented Entrepreneurs program will enable more underserved groups to get entrepreneurship training and achieve their technological and commercial potential, as well as help enhance U.S. leadership in science and engineering.”

The NSF supports the Commercialization and Entrepreneurship Summit through a grant awarded to IU, the University of Louisville, and Missouri University of Science and Technology.