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NEWS RELEASE

10-08-03

Contacts:
Cheryl Kamman, Innovations Development Facility, (515) 294-3945
Stephen Howell, Plant Sciences Institute, (515) 294-5267
Teddi Barron, News Service, (515) 294-4778

KAMMAN NAMED DIRECTOR OF PLANT SCIENCES INSTITUTE'S INNOVATIONS DEVELOPMENT FACILITY AT ISU

AMES, Iowa -- Cheryl Kamman has been named director of the new Innovations Development Facility, the business and economic development program of the Plant Sciences Institute at Iowa State University.

Located in the new Roy J. Carver Co-Laboratory, the Innovations Development Facility includes business incubators and a public/private partnership program.

The Roy J. Carver Co-Laboratory Business Incubator is intended to help create start-up plant biotechnology companies. It provides a transitional setting between the academic research laboratory and established business. Faculty, staff and students interested in developing commercial applications from their university and/or their company research will have access to scientific instruments, financial resources and business advising.

The Public/Private Partnership Program will encourage scientists from established Iowa businesses to conduct collaborative research on site with Iowa State scientists and equipment.

Kamman will assist with start-up business development by advising ISU scientists on research funding and on establishing collaborations with appropriate campus business resources. She also will lease incubator laboratory and office space in the Co-Laboratory. In addition, Kamman will lease available space to established businesses, to foster interaction between scientists from ISU and industry.

Kamman has been with Iowa State since 1992, most recently as a licensing associate in the Office of Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer, and previously as an industrial marketing specialist with the Center for Advanced Technology Development.

Kamman holds a bachelor's in chemistry (1991) and a master's in business administration (1997), both from Iowa State. She worked as an analytical chemist at Ames Laboratory from 1992 to 1998, serving as manager of the Materials Preparation Center's Analytical Services from 1994 to 1998.

The Plant Sciences Institute at Iowa State University is dedicated to becoming one of the world's leading plant science research institutes. More than 200 faculty from the College of Agriculture, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the College of Family and Consumer Sciences and the College of Engineering conduct research in nine centers of the institute. They seek fundamental knowledge about plant systems to help feed the growing world population, strengthen human health and nutrition, improve crop quality and yield, foster environmental sustainability and expand the uses of plants for biobased products and bioenergy. The Plant Sciences Institute supports the training of students for exciting career opportunities and promotes new technologies to aid in the economic development of agriculture and industry throughout the state. The institute is supported through public and private funding.

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