University of Chicago, Argonne National Laboratory launch Chicago Technology Forum

The University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory will conduct quarterly Chicago Technology Forums to showcase promising high-tech research at local universities and research centers and help spark collaborations with the business community, University President Don Randel announced today. Randel made the announcement at the Mid-America Committee Leadership Luncheon in support of Mayor Daley’s New Economy Growth Strategy for Chicagoland.

Through the Forum, the University seeks to promote local economic growth by leveraging research on technological development to improve commercialization in the Chicago business community.

“The University and Argonne National Laboratory are committed to generating new ideas. We are also committed to engaging with business, investment and civic leaders who can translate new ideas into new businesses,” Randel said. “This means bringing multiple University of Chicago resources to bear on technology development, including leading science research centers on campus, the extensive programs and facilities of Argonne, and the expertise and research of our professional schools, notably the Graduate School of Business. We are confident that working with Gov. Ryan and Mayor Daley, we can help move the region forward with this exciting project.”

Hosting the Forum will be Hermann Grunder, Director of Argonne; Edward Snyder, Dean of the University’s Graduate School of Business; and Robert Zimmer, the University’s Vice President for Research and for Argonne.

The invitation-only Technology Forum will meet every October, January, April and June from 8 to 11:30 a.m. at the University of Chicago’s Gleacher Center, 450 N. Cityfront Plaza Drive. Details of the first meeting will be forthcoming.

Presentations will include reports about laboratory advances and technological change, presentations from local start-ups, and new research results on entrepreneurship, business and venture investing.

“The universities and national laboratories are uniquely capable of performing long-term research across an expanse of disciplines that transforms the way technological entrepreneurs do business,” Randel said. “We expect this research to continue and to contribute even more to a vigorous local market that supports new business creation.”

The University and Argonne comprise the largest research enterprise in the Midwest. Together the University and Argonne conduct more than $700 million in sponsored research. They have licensed more than 150 technologies to the private sector, and entrepreneurs have created more than two dozen companies that are based on licensed technologies developed at the University and Argonne.

The University of Chicago was founded by John D. Rockefeller in 1891. Private, nondenominational and coeducational, the University enrolls approximately 12,500 students and employs more than 2,000 full-time instructional and research faculty members. More than 70 recipients of the Nobel Prize have been students, researchers or faculty members at the University.

Argonne National Laboratory is a U.S. Department of Energy laboratory formed in 1946 as an outgrowth of the Metallurgical Laboratory at the University that in 1942 produced the first controlled, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction. Today, in addition to basic research, approximately 4,200 Argonne researchers study problems in energy production and use, the environment, economic competitiveness and health. The University operates Argonne for the U.S. Department of Energy.