By Faheem Ullah, Thomas Jefferson University
A postdoctoral fellow who successfully transitioned to a Technology Transfer Specialist role
In early 2020, I graduated from Western Sydney University, Australia. In preparation for a tenure track faculty position, I accumulated several major awards and scholarships, numerous conference presentations, and several first-author publications in reputable journals in preparation. I was elated when I got a postdoc position, as I, like many graduate students interested in positions in academia, understood that this was the best way to prepare for a faculty position. However, I soon learned that the number of accomplished Ph.D. holders in postdoc positions greatly outweighs the number of available tenure track positions. This realization made me reconsider the type of position I wanted in academia and encouraged me to seek more from my postdoc training.
While I worked tirelessly as a postdoc to improve my critical thinking, experimental design process, and writing, I realized that I lacked the soft skills, such as communication, leadership, research compliance/management. To advance these soft skills, I volunteered for various leadership roles, joining the Postdoctoral Association (PDA) as a campus coordinator and a union liaison. Within these roles, I was able to support newly hired postdoc researchers, offering guidance on housing, interpreting their employment and union contracts, explaining available benefits, and addressing any related questions they had. I also served in the Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences (RBHS) Strategic Plan Implementation subcommittee focused on Monitoring and Assessment (IMAT) in education and training. In this role, I actively contributed to the development and implementation of educational initiatives aimed at enhancing training for medical professionals. These roles not only improved my soft skills, but also provided valuable leadership experience and expanded my professional network beyond the confines of my own lab. It also provided me with the skills to transition into my first technology transfer role.
As a postdoc, I facilitated inter-institutional agreements and managed material transfer agreements to support collaborative research efforts. This part of my postdoc sparked my interest in technology transfer. So, I pursued a technology transfer internship at Office of Technology Transfer at Rutgers to gain hands on experience and knowledge in intellectual property and the pathway that drives an invention from labs. This type of internship is now active at many US universities, supporting scientists and engineers as they build translational skills and an entrepreneurial mindset to bring their research to impact. The program generally provides a series of educational boot camps consisting of training sessions on innovation skills and knowledge and an 8 – 10 hours per week commitment to work on real technologies. Postdocs supported by this program can choose one of three pathways to become successful translational researchers in academia, innovation leaders in industry, or founders of scalable, science-based spin-off ventures.
Technology transfer is an exciting world of intellectual property that evaluates, protects, and transfers intellectual property from the lab to the marketplace, corporate engagement, start-up and entrepreneurial support, and economic development. Postdocs are ideal candidates for these positions. With a little bit of training in interdisciplinary skills, entrepreneurial thinking, and a collaborative mindset, they can drive transformative advancements and bridge the gap between research, industry, and society. I am consistently exposed to various opportunities in the technology industry and startup companies looking for business leads. These are excellent opportunities for innovation-minded postdocs, as they can take the opportunities to launch startup companies with universities, state, federal, or VC-backed funding sources.
This article was edited by Senior Editors Antonia Kaz and Joycelyn Radeny.