Bulletin of the American Physical Society
2007 APS March Meeting
Volume 52, Number 1
Monday–Friday, March 5–9, 2007; Denver, Colorado
Session H6: Physicists as Entrepreneurs |
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Sponsoring Units: FIAP Chair: Philip Wyatt, Wyatt Technology Corporation Room: Colorado Convention Center 207 |
Tuesday, March 6, 2007 8:00AM - 8:36AM |
H6.00001: Wine and Coca Cola: Serendipity and Entrepreneurial success Invited Speaker: Starting a new company from scratch depends critically on identifying a product for which there will be enough demand to generate a profit after a reasonable time period. Many start-ups nowadays obtain early Government grants or contracts ($e. g$. the so-called SBIR programs), but until such contracts begin (if ever!) to provide positive cash flow, a source of other funds become essential. Despite contracts, venture capital, and some friends willing to ``gamble,'' our first entrepreneurial venture ended not with a bang, but a whimper! We had chosen the wrong market. On the day before the company closed its doors, an unanticipated event occurred. We had opened a few bottles of wine for our final farewell but, as we began drinking, we decided to study their laser-scattering properties with our unappreciated and failed instrumentation. The resulting press coverage of a paper reporting that ``tasting'' was phenomenal, though it was published too late to save the company. Starting a second entrepreneurial venture was far more difficult as the first ``angels'' were nowhere to be found. A forgotten proposal by that failed first venture was suddenly funded providing, thereby, the means to start the second. As the second venture began, the success of the wine paper suggested that trying the same method with cola drinks might prove interesting. A new paper reporting on those results was immediately picked up by \textit{Applied Optics} for an issue cover. At first, a particular cola manufacturer was not amused. However, it soon recognized the significance of laser scattering and began to contribute to the Company's support. Complemented by their largesse and the newly funded contract, the Company's instrumentation commercialization programs became sharply focused: refine the development and sale of a new type of absolute light scattering photometer incorporating a laser. We never looked back. [Preview Abstract] |
Tuesday, March 6, 2007 8:36AM - 9:12AM |
H6.00002: A Mythical History of the Scanning Probe Microscope - How it Could Have Been Invited Speaker: The path from the ground breaking Topografiner by Young et. al. in 1972 to the current Atomic Force Microscopes was tortuous, to say the least. Now as an entrepreneur, they say that you should study the problem, work out a plan, and then execute the plan. Since this rarely works for me in real life, let's follow the mythical history of Phil the physics student whose simple approach to scanning probe microscopes during his summer job may explain life better than real life did. Comparisons between Phil's experience and real life will be made along the way to show how random real life was compared to Phil's straightforward approach. We will follow Phil as he goes from the Scanning Touching Microscope (STM) to the All Fancy Microscope (AFM) and ends up with a current scanning probe microscope. The ``lesson'' in this story is that when you are doing something new, you learn so much while you are doing it that what you thought at the beginning (the plan) is rarely the best way to go. It is more important, I believe, for entrepreneurs to explore possibilities and keep their eyes open along the way rather than pretend the path they are on is the right one. Phil is mythical because he always knew where he was headed and it was always the right direction. So how does Phil's story end? I'm working on it and will tell you at the March Meeting. [Preview Abstract] |
Tuesday, March 6, 2007 9:12AM - 9:48AM |
H6.00003: A Physicist in Business: Opportunities, Pitfalls, and Lifestyle. Invited Speaker: A traditional education in physics does not normally include business classes or dealing with opportunities to start a company, yet scientists often now start and run small companies. Physicists are mainly interested in technology. However, other factors quickly dominate chances for business success. These include finance, accounting, cash flow analysis, recruiting, interviewing, personnel issues, marketing, investments, retirement plans, patents and other not always so fun activities. Technical decisions are often strongly influenced by company finances and market-analysis. This talk discusses how to recognize opportunity, how to minimize chances for failure, and lifestyle changes one needs to be aware of before entrepreneurship involvement. [Preview Abstract] |
Tuesday, March 6, 2007 9:48AM - 10:24AM |
H6.00004: Optical View of an Entrepreneur Invited Speaker: The WYKO Corporation was founded on December 27, 1982 to design, manufacture, sell, and service metrology instruments for many applications, with the largest market being in the magnetic data storage industry. WYKO grew out of the research my students and I did at the Optical Sciences Center at the University of Arizona, but it's origins actually started earlier at the Itek Corporation where I went to work after getting my PhD in optics at the University of Rochester. Founding, growing, and cashing out was an unbelievable experience that was more fun than I ever dreamed anything could be. In this talk I will discuss the formation, growth, and eventual selling of the WYKO Corporation to Veeco in 1997. Both the fun parts and the not so fun parts will be discussed. The biggest surprises experienced and what I think are the most important factors in growing a successful high-tech company will be described. [Preview Abstract] |
Tuesday, March 6, 2007 10:24AM - 11:00AM |
H6.00005: Enterpreneurism in Science & Business: A Personal Case Study Invited Speaker: I'll talk about my personal journey from teenage particle physicist to 47-year-old running a company I founded 20 years ago (that happens right now to be poised on the brink of some very exciting developments). I'll talk about personal choices people make, and some of my observations from watching many peoples' careers. I'll talk about my work in building new directions in science, and how it relates to Mathematica and our company. I'll also talk about why we hire a lot of physicists, and what they do. [Preview Abstract] |
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