Senior Advisor to Speak at Professional Development Seminar hosted by Johns Hopkins Institute for NanoBioTechnology

Aris Melissaratos, senior advisor to the president for enterprise development at Johns Hopkins Technology Transfer, will speak at the summer's first Professional Development Seminar hosted by the Johns Hopkins Institute for NanoBioTechnology (INBT) on June 16 at 11 a.m. in Maryland Hall 110.

A Hopkins' electrical engineering graduate (‘66), Melissaratos will discuss the importance of technology on academic development and how it affects the standard of living, opportunities of the future, and solves global discrepancies. Melissaratos claims that he has “lots of warnings and advice” to offer, in addition to the benefit of “50 years of industry” experience.

Wednesday's talk will include excerpts and topics from his new book, Innovation: The Key to Prosperity—Technology and America's Role in the 21st Century Global Economy, cowritten with N.J Slabbert, which focuses on the translation side of the industry and how to transfer technology. The book “reveals America's greatest wealth: its scientific and inventive ingenuity” and discusses how to harness and utilize that wealth for its full potential.

Melissaratos is a whiz at developing and financing a product and creating a business around a product. A true product of a research institute, Melissaratos” book “reminds us of the power and adventure of human intelligence,” wrote Gilbert F. Decker, former Science Advisor to the US Secretary of Defense in a review of the book. Topics to look forward to include: redeveloping the American economy to regain supremacy, upping our competitive edge in the global economy, and making up for our country's lost manufacturing base with research.

Melissaratos has previously served as the vice president of science and technology and chief technology officer at Westinghouse Electronics corporate headquarters in Pittsburgh. He left to join state government in 2003 as Secretary of the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development. His list of impressive credentials include holding the vice presidency title at Thermo Electron Corp., founding Armel Private Equity Investments, founding the Greater Baltimore Technology Council (co-chair), and serving as vice president of the Maryland Chamber of Commerce.

Four seminars will be held this summer. To attend any of INBT's Professional Development Seminars, RSVP to Ashanti Edwards at [email protected].