NanoMaterials Commercialization Center Staff

Alan G. Brown, Ph.D., MBA - Executive Director
412.918.4205

Dr. Brown serves as the Center's Executive Director, overseeing the Center's efforts to establish Pennsylvania as the first-to-market leader in products and technologies that utilize nanomaterials. Dr. Brown has been instrumental in establishing the Center as a non-profit organization in 2006. He has worked closely with Pennsylvania’s universities, companies and government agencies to develop a unique public-private partnership for commercialization of advanced technologies.

Previously, Dr. Brown led the technology development for the non-profit CAMP Inc. (formerly the Cleveland Advanced Manufacturing Program), an economic development organization in Ohio. He was vice president and chief technology officer at CAMP, where he assisted companies and entrepreneurs in adopting and supporting advanced technologies, including nanotechnology.

Prior to his career in technology based economic development, Dr. Brown spent 20 years in the private sector in research, new product development, advanced manufacturing and consulting. He has worked in a wide range of technology areas, such as; thin films, semiconductors, electro-optics, acoustics, and microelectronics. He has held executive level positions in both Fortune 500 and start-up companies.

Some examples of the positions held by Dr. Brown are; Senior Program Manager and New Product Development Manager (Semiconductors), Digital Equipment Corporation, Director of Engineering, Unitrode Corporation, Vice President of Engineering, National Micronetics, Senior Program Manager, Andersen Labs Inc., and R&D scientist, RCA Canada.

Dr. Brown received his Ph.D., in physics from the University of Toronto; he earned his masters degree in business from Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts and his bachelor's and master’s degrees in physics and mathematics from the University of Waterloo in Canada.

Leoné Hermans-Blackburn, Ph.D. – Research Commercialization Project Manager
412.918.4239

Dr. Hermans-Blackburn serves as the Research Commercialization Project Manager and manages all of the technology commercialization projects and program initiatives for the Center. Dr. Hermans-Blackburn received her Master’s and Ph.D. degrees in Chemistry from the State University of New York at Binghamton; she earned her Bachelor’s degree from the University of Cape Town in RSA.

Before joining the Center, Dr. Hermans-Blackburn held an interim position as a Consultant for new technology development. Previously, Dr. Hermans-Blackburn held the position of Manager of Research and Development at Cohera Medical Inc.a biomedical device startup company based in Pittsburgh.

Dr. Hermans-Blackburn spent 7 years at Bayer MaterialScience and held positions of increasing responsibility. She was the technical project lead in the High Throughput Screening group and New Product Development for Coatings Technologies. Dr. Hermans-Blackburn holds three patents with eight pending and is the author of numerous technical publications and presentations.

Since arriving in Pittsburgh at the end of 2000, Leoné has held several positions in the local technical community; Chair for the Polymer Group and Chairperson for the Women Chemists Committee (WCC) for the American Chemical Society, Pittsburgh Section. During this time the WCC won the ChemLuminary award for two consecutive years. Leoné also served as an Executive officer of Bayer’s Women’s Initiative Networking Group, WINGs and mentored local high school students as part of a Bayer Initiative to encourage cultural awareness through marketing.

Tricia Straw, B.A. - Program Assistant
412.918.4244

Mrs. Straw serves as the Program Assistant for the Center. In this role she develops marketing materials for the Center, updates the Center’s web site and provides general administrative duties for Executive Director Alan Brown. She joined the Center in February 2008.

Before joining the Center, Mrs. Straw worked as an Administrative Assistant at SI International in Washington, D.C. SI International is now known as Serco North America. They are the leading provider of professional, technology, and management services which focuses on the federal government. At SI International she assisted three Program Managers and also assisted the Vice President of the Civilian Agency Programs in a number of duties. In addition, she created and maintained sensitive documents, as well as process improvement and quality assurance documentation.

Mrs. Straw graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Communications from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania.