Charles Redmond
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.                                                   
October 15, 1993
(Phone:  202/358-1757)


RELEASE:  93-185

DIRECTOR OF AMES TECHNOLOGY COMMERCIALIZATION CENTER NAMED

     The IC2 Institute, Austin, Texas, has appointed John S. Gee 
as the Director of the Ames Technology Commercialization Center 
(ATCC) located in Sunnyvale, Calif.  IC2 Institute, a unit of the 
University of Texas, was contracted by NASA Headquarters Office of 
Advanced Concepts Technology, Washington, D.C., to assist NASA 
centers in the transfer of technology to the private sector.

     The ATCC is a joint project of NASA and the IC2 Institute.  
The project is a 3-year experiment designed to facilitate the 
commercialization of NASA-developed technologies.  The ATCC is one 
of two such test sites.  The other is at the Johnson Space Center 
(JSC), Houston.  The JSC technology commercialization center 
recently appointed Dr. Jill D. Fabricant as its Director.

     Gee experience in business, education and government includes 
10 years as a business technology consultant to major American 
firms.  He also managed an engineering firm in Newport Beach, 
Calif.  He directed the Community Schools Program for the 
Sunnyvale School District, Calif., and was a consultant for and 
taught in several educational institutions in California and 
Colorado.

     The technology commercialization program is funded this year 
for $800,000.  NASA's Ames Research Center, Mountain View, Calif., 
and JSC will draw upon a regional network of entrepreneurs, 
investment capital, market and business savvy on the one hand and 
the NASA field center talent and technology pool on the other.

     The IC2 Institute staff in Austin is performing market 
assessments to establish which NASA technologies are most 
appropriate to transfer.  The two primary methods of technology 
transfer the ATCC will use are entrepreneurial licensing of 
technologies to established channels of manufacturing and 
marketing and providing value-added support.  In the value-added 
process, the ATCC will take a technology that can stand alone and 
assist in building a business around the technology.

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