University of Washington President Michael Young announced the appointment of ten new members to the university’s prestigious Presidential Entrepreneurial Faculty Fellows (EFF) program. This year’s appointees join eight continuing fellows previously selected for success in initiating groundbreaking programs to translate research into products and therapies, in collaborating with industry, and in sharing their knowledge with other UW researchers.

Throughout their two-year terms, the ten new fellows will serve as mentors to other UW faculty, researchers and staff with entrepreneurial aspirations, and also share their experiences at campus entrepreneurial events. At the end of the term, fellows are encouraged to continue participation in the program and to serve as program and activity advisors to the UW Center for Commercialization (C4C).

The ten new UW Presidential Entrepreneurial Faculty Fellows are: Chuck Murry, professor of pathology, bioengineering and medicine/cardiology; Mike Regnier, professor of bioengineering; Per Reinhall, professor and chair of mechanical engineering; Ed Clark, professor of microbiology and immunology; Michael Jensen, MD, director of the Ben Towne Center for Childhood Cancer at Seattle Children’s Research Institute and professor of pediatric hematology-oncology at UW Medicine; Satoshi Minoshima, professor of radiology; Shwetak Patel, associate professor of computer science and engineering and electrical engineering; Corey Fagan, clinic director, psychology; Jake Wobbrock, associate professor, Information School; and Andy Ko, assistant professor, Information School.

Wobbrock, Ko and then Ph.D. student Parmit Chilana (now professor at University of Waterloo) created AnswerDash, the iSchool's first VC-funded startup that provides software to enable online businesses to deliver instant contextual answers to their users, increasing sales and lowering customer support costs.

“These ten professors have encouraged the commercial sector to take notice of UW, to consider us first when seeking collaborators and cutting edge technology to form the basis of new patient treatments, products, and services,” said Young. “Our Entrepreneurial Faculty Fellows are a critical component of the ecosystem taking hold.”