Thomas H. Brown
Former National Deputy Program Director, Federal Laboratory Consortium
Thomas H. Brown has more than 30 years of experience in government, industry, and academia managerial positions in technology transfer, outreach, and technical training. He has specialized in intellectual property and technology transfer activities, as well as educational [K-16] outreach programs, fundraising and proposal preparation. His experience includes program management, collaborative agreement development, and technology development strategies implementation for small- to medium-sized organizations. He also has more than 18 years of business management and sales/marketing experience specializing in high technology-based organizations.
For more than 20 years, Mr. Brown managed the Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer (FLC) Northeast and Mid-Atlantic Regional Support Offices and was Deputy Director of the National Office. In this capacity, he has identified, initiated contact with, visited, and made presentations about the FLC to new federal research centers in the regions eligible for membership. He presented and disseminated FLC information at various activities held by non-member academic, industrial, and economic development organizations. He facilitated dialogue about federal technology transfer between member laboratories and private sector companies to encourage the commercialization of member laboratory technologies, establishment of Work for Others agreements, and the use of federal facilities through cooperative agreements. He has given presentations on doing business with the FLC at SBIR training sessions in the regions he supported.
Prior to working in the federal sector, Mr. Brown was the Associate Director of the New Jersey Space Grant Consortium (NJSGC), a NASA-administered educational outreach organization. He worked closely with New Jersey research universities and affiliated educational institutions to expand opportunities for future scientists to understand and participate in NASA’s aeronautics, space education, and workforce development programs. As Associate Director of a NASA Northeast Regional Technology Transfer Center, he established strong links between industrial and federal/university sectors, performed commercialization assessments of federal- and university-developed technologies, and marketed those technologies to private industry. As Vice President of Development for Knowledge Systems, Inc., a NASA technology-based startup company, Mr. Brown worked closely with the New Jersey Department of Education and NASA Headquarters education representatives to develop Internet-based mathematics and science education assessment products and worked with Virginia Commonwealth University, NASA Headquarters, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, and NASA AMES Research Center to develop rural medical distance learning and telemedicine products. As the Northeast Regional Technology Transfer Center representative to the FLC, sitting on the education and legislative committees; received the Excellence in Technology Transfer Award from NASA Northeast Regional Technology Transfer Center in 1995 and the 1996 Federal Laboratory Consortium Regional Appreciation Award for activities furthering technology transfer in the Northeast.
Mr. Brown is Past President of the NJ Academy of Science and currently serves on the NJ Regional Homeland Security Technology Committee, a group that supports the NJ Office of Homeland Security Preparedness.