This December marks Ron Huss’s 20th anniversary working in the Office of Technology Management. Huss has been managing the office since 2000, and in 2008, he was promoted to Associate Vice President for Research and Technology Transfer, where he provides leadership of Penn State’s vast intellectual-property assets, which comprises thousands of patents, patent applications, copyrights, and other IP.

Huss earned his bachelor of arts degree in biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin and a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. Before his tenure at Penn State, Huss worked in grant management, and even worked on beer fermentation from a biochemistry standpoint.

Since Huss began working with university technology management, there has been a big shift in the perspective on entrepreneurship. We caught up with Ron to get his thoughts on Invent Penn State and its effect on entrepreneurship in our community.

Congratulations to the Summer 2016 Happy Valley LaunchBox Graduates!

On Wednesday, July 27, the 10 graduating LaunchTeams of the Summer 2016 Happy Valley LaunchBox cohort graduated from the 10-week business incubator program on Allen Street in State College. The 10 team gave 3-minute "rocket pitches" as part of the graduation ceremony.

Salimetrics, a global leader in salivary bioscience, has been successfully bridging the areas of academic research and product development for nearly twenty years. The company was co-founded by Penn State researchers Doug Granger and Eve Schwartz, together with State College investor Dick Supina, and began in a tiny basement lab at Penn State—the Behavioral Endocrinology Lab (BEL).

Researchers at the BEL study the relationship between biomarkers (e.g. the hormones cortisol and testosterone) and behavioral patterns such as aggressiveness. Measurement of these biomarkers was historically made using blood serum, which has obvious drawbacks. The creative genius behind work at Penn State’s BEL, eventually transferred to Salimetrics for commercial applications, was to substitute the use of blood-serum assays with salivary assays.

Analytical Flavor Systems Holds the Key to an Optimized Future for Food and Beverage Producers


How do you turn flavor into numbers? For Jason Cohen, CEO of Analytical Flavor Systems, that question guided his studies and research at Penn State – research that would become the backbone of his predictive manufacturing company.

In food and beverage production, quality and consistency are key, making contamination the enemy to successful brand upkeep and customer loyalty. And with the craft-beverage industry on the rise, quality and consistency are the guarantors of a competitive edge.

Enter Analytical Flavor Systems, whose product Gastrograph is a quality control tool with unprecedented capabilities. A blend of sensory science, data mining, and analytical chemistry equip the system to constantly monitor flavor profiles and anticipate minor flaws that could have major consequences.

After all, Cohen said, “The measure of a science is the ability to make correct predictions.” But in the realm of flavor? “Sensory science is barely explanatory at its best.” In other words, this “science” has been perhaps better defined as an art.

Tucked inside Penn State’s Office of Technology Management, in side-by-side offices, you’ll find Ruth Harpster and Kathy Kresovich, regular walking partners for 18+ years and avid participants in coolBLUE events hosted at Innovation Park.

Kathy, Administrative Support Coordinator, has been with the office for 23 years, and she manages the day-to-day operations and maintains the budget for the office. Right next door is Ruth, a patent manager who does paralegal and docketing work.

“Kathy was here before me,” Ruth said, “so we met when I started working here. We found we have similar interests, have children of similar ages, and both like to exercise.”

When asked how they stay motivated to be active, Kathy said, “I think it’s the buddy system. There are days if I was by myself I wouldn’t walk, but I’m counting on her to walk and she’s counting on me.”

Both are also amateur photographers. They’ve taken tons of photos at the park and other areas around Happy Valley. In fact, they learned most of what they know about photography through a class offered at the park.