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.
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.
Alicyn M. Rhoades, Ph.D. – Research Commercialization Project Manager
412.918.4239
Dr. Rhoades manages the proposal submission, review, and project management areas for the Center. In this role she works closely with companies and researchers to assist them in proposing to the center and managing their commercialization projects. Dr. Rhoades comes to the Center most recently from The University of Southern Mississippi College of Science and Technology where she promoted collaboration between the university and small start-up companies as commercialization of technology leader. Dr. Rhoades also led programs to increase student awareness of entrepreneurial training opportunities at the University and directed graduate recruitment for the University’s “Commercialization of Technology” program. Under a National Science Foundation endowment, she helped to lead four entrepreneurial graduate teams in developing business plans for commercialization of new technology, and she developed, organized and conducted Project Action, a career outreach program for undergraduate women in the sciences. Dr. Rhoades has also worked as an independent consultant within the arena of commercializing technology.
Dr. Rhoades is the author of numerous presentations on polymers research, and has been invited to speak in several industrial, academic, and conference settings. Her research has appeared in the Journal of Coatings Technology, Progress in Organic Coatings, Polymeric Materials Science and Engineering and a variety of other publications. Dr. Rhoades earned a Bachelor's degree in plastics engineering technology from the Pennsylvania State University, Behrend College. She received her Doctorate in polymer science from The University of Southern Mississippi, where she also minored in commercializing technology.