Louise Epstein

Louise is a native Austinite. She received two degrees from the University of Texas—a BA in the Honors Interdisciplinary Program (Plan II) and an MBA. In 1990 she was elected to an at-large position on the Austin City Council. It was her initiatives that created both the Bergstrom Airport and the Barton Creek Wilderness Park. Louise, by choice, served just one term on the City Council. She then created a financial technology company that she ran for 10 years. UT Austin sought to capitalize on that entrepreneurial experience and brought her back to the McCombs School of Business as the Entrepreneur in Residence. From there she was hired by ethernet inventor Bob Metcalfe, to be the founding managing director of the Innovation Center at the Cockrell School of Engineering. Together with Bob Metcalfe, they successfully helped faculty members create startups with their patented technology. This process—moving technology from the research lab to the market, where it can have impact--is known as technology commercialization. Louise is a nationally recognized expert in this field. She is a regular speaker at national conferences and author of the paper “Twelve Critical Components of University Technology Commercialization”.
Louise currently helps scientists across the country create sustainable businesses as a Senior Principal Advisor with LARTA (Los Angeles Regional Technology Alliance). Her clients are primarily recipients of DOE, DOD, and USDA grants.
She also serves on the Board of the technology transfer office of the medical school in Little Rock, AR, and on the Steering Committee of a National Institute of Health-sponsored acceleration hub.

Louise will talk to us about how your federal tax dollars are being used for research—and how all of that changed for the better in 1980 with the passage of legislation by Senators Bob Dole and Birch Bayh—the Bayh-Dole Act.