FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
CONTACT:
Liz Crawford
Rice Alliance for Technology & Entrepreneurship
713.348.6354
www.alliance.rice.edu
Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship Wins Prestigious Entrepreneurship Educators Award From Stanford University
(HOUSTON, November 4, 2004) – The Rice Alliance for Technology & Entrepreneurship (Rice Alliance) was awarded The Price Foundation Innovative Entrepreneurship Educators Award during the Roundtable on Entrepreneurship Education for Scientists and Engineers (REE) held at Stanford University.
Hosted by The Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP), REE gathers business, science, and engineering faculty from leading universities with the goal of accelerating entrepreneurship education for scientists and engineers. The recipient of the Price Award is selected by faculty and staff of the STVP.
"Professor Tom Byers and I are thrilled to present the Price Foundation Innovative Entrepreneurship Educators Award to Steve Currall and the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship,” shared Dr. Tina Seelig, Executive Director of the STVP. “Steve has shown incredible leadership and innovation in building this remarkable program. The Rice Alliance is a model for bringing together business leaders, students, and faculty across several different schools. This award acknowledges the significant reach and impact of the program.”
“I am delighted to receive the Price Foundation award,” said Professor Steven C. Currall, the William and Stephanie Sick Professor of Entrepreneurship, Associate Professor of Management, and Founding Director of the Rice Alliance. “I have a passion for entrepreneurship programs that have as their mission to ensure that science and engineering discoveries have a benefit on society through the entrepreneurship process. This was my vision when I formed the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship nearly five years ago.”
Collaboration among the Schools of Engineering, Management, and Natural Sciences to form a center focused on technology entrepreneurship is rare among university programs. The joint effort among the three Schools at Rice resulted in the creation and launch of the Rice Alliance in 2000. The Rice Alliance is Rice University's flagship initiative devoted to the synergy of science, engineering, and entrepreneurship.
“The success of the Rice Alliance is due to the collaboration and partnership among the Schools of Engineering, Natural Science and Management. The synergy of these three Schools enhances the breadth of the Alliance's educational, research, and technology commercialization activities,” explained Kathleen S. Matthews, Dean of The Wiess School of Natural Sciences, and Stewart Memorial Professor of Biochemistry and Cell Biology. “Through entrepreneurship teaching and research, faculty and staff support the commercialization of innovations and discoveries from science and engineering.”
To institutionalize collaboration between the Schools, Currall, Associate Professor of Management in the Jones Graduate School of Management, is also the William and Stephanie Sick Professor of Entrepreneurship in the School of Engineering. The Sick professorship was established to promote entrepreneurship across the University.
“The Rice Alliance, under the leadership of its founding director, Steve Currall, has succeeded in creating a vigorous environment of entrepreneurship at Rice: a culture in which science and engineering faculty look beyond the academic realm to consider the potential commercial applications of their work,” praised Dean C. Sidney Burrus, of the George R. Brown School Of Engineering, and Maxfield and Oshman Professor of Engineering.
“The Jones School is happy to have played a role in the development of the campus partnership represented by the Rice Alliance,” added Gilbert R. Whitaker, Dean and H. Joe Nelson III Professor of Business Economics at the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management of Rice University. “It has drawn to campus people who may never have been here and has provided an excellent forum for the multiple constituencies who are the creators of new enterprises - the lifeblood of our nation's economy.”
Since its inception in late-1999, the Rice Alliance has assisted in the launch over 150 new technology companies which have raised more than $100 million in early stage funding. It has also attracted nearly $4,000,000 in external funding including donations and pledges, as well as two grants from the National Science Foundation to promote entrepreneurship education and research.
The mission of the Rice Alliance is to support the creation of technology-based companies and the commercialization of new technologies through education and research. The Alliance provides entrepreneurs with a collaborative network for support, education, and exchange of ideas. It provides entrepreneurs access to the human and financial capital needed for success.
“The Alliance has held over 60 entrepreneurship education programs, attended by over 12,000 students, faculty, scientists, engineers, and business leaders,” explained Brad Burke, Managing Director, Rice Alliance. “We have seen unprecedented growth in all aspects of our entrepreneurship programs over the past 4 years. Last year alone, nearly 4,000 individuals participated in over 18 Rice Alliance educational programs.”
Past winners of the Price award include Professors Cyrus Taylor and Robert Hisrich of Case Western Reserve University, honored for pioneering the Physics Entrepreneurship Program. Professors Marie Thursby and Alan Flury were recognized for their multi-disciplinary program with the Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University called TI:GER - Technological Innovation: Generating Economic Results. Professor David Barbe, of the University of Maryland was award the prize for creation of the Hinman Campus Entrepreneurship Opportunities Program.
The Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP) is the entrepreneurship education and research center located within Stanford University's School of Engineering. The STVP mission is to build a world-class program dedicated to accelerating high-technology entrepreneurship research and education for engineers and scientists worldwide.
STVP supports academic research on high-technology entrepreneurship and teaches a wide range of courses to scientists and engineers on campus. STVP has a strong outreach effort that includes hosting four international conferences on entrepreneurship. In addition, STVP makes all of their teaching resources and tools available on the STVP website for entrepreneurship educators around the world.