Christina Lomasney
With apologies to the Farmers Insurance coverage advert, Christina Lomasney is aware of a factor or two as a result of she’s seen a factor or two.
She studied physics to grow to be a professor, then launched two companies that overcame unbelievable odds to success.
As director of commercialization for the Pacific Northwest Nationwide Laboratory, she attracts on all her expertise to push know-how developed on the U.S. Division of Power laboratory into the industrial market, a part of its mission to bolster the U.S. economic system and nationwide safety.
Lomasney brings the expertise of main two profitable ventures in Seattle to the publish. In 2015, Fortune named her one of many World’s Most Promising Girls Entrepreneurs.
By that point, Lomasney had weathered challenges that will have examined most younger ventures.
As an alternative, she and her groups fought by the setbacks and constructed thriving firms.
She moved to the Tri-Cities in 2020, after leaving her newest enterprise, Seattle-based Modumetal Inc. She was intrigued by the world and since her now-husband, Gen. James Mattis, lives right here.
Earlier than becoming a member of PNNL, she joined the Entrepreneur in Residence program at Washington State College Tri-Cities in Richland and received to know the PNNL commercialization staff and the “wonderful” array of discoveries inside the lab.
When her predecessor, Lee Cheatham, left in January, she jumped on the likelihood to guide the commercialization program.
A physicist, Lomasney explores the laboratories in north Richland with the attention of a scientist and the pragmatism of a enterprise govt. Her take: PNNL’s labs are teeming with know-how that might change the world for the higher, from local weather change to vitality storage to nationwide safety.
“I do really feel like I’ve found the best sweet retailer on earth,” she stated.
PNNL, operated by Battelle, debuted in 1965 and noticed its mission targeted on vitality and nationwide safety within the mid-Nineteen Seventies, when the Atomic Power Fee grew to become the Division of Power in response to the vitality disaster. It receives about $1 billion yearly for scientific analysis throughout quite a lot of disciplines, together with vitality and safety.
Congress requires the DOE labs to switch know-how developed at taxpayer expense into the market with out straight competing with the non-public sector. Lomasney stated one of the simplest ways to try this at PNNL is thru small and native companies.
Tech switch is just not new. PNNL has been commercializing know-how for many years with outstanding successes in its portfolio.
At airports, passengers cross by whole-body scanners powered by millimeter wave know-how developed and licensed by PNNL. Ultrahigh-frequency radio waves penetrate clothes and non-metallic limitations to assist Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) officers screening for hid objects.
Lomasney referred to as it an instance of serving to commercialize promising know-how by figuring out potential prospects and dealing with them to develop it.
PNNL recognized journey and transportation as shops for millimeter wave tech. It started working with the Federal Aviation Administration in 1989 and secured its first patent in 1995. It licensed the tech to SafeView Scout, which was later acquired by L3 Communications.
By partnering with industries that stood to learn from enhanced safety – tourism and transportation – the lab fostered demand for its rising know-how.
“In the event that they see it, that may create the pull,” she stated.
One other favourite instance is lab-developed know-how that retains reducing blades sharp within the processing vegetation that churn out frozen french fries – a big {industry} within the Mid-Columbia. Lomasney likes to speak about it as a result of anybody who eats french fries can recognize the science that helps put them on their plates.
“We save the world in some ways,” she joked.
STARS Know-how Corp., a Richland clear tech start-up, is one other PNNL licensee on the cusp of economic operation.
The know-how generates hydrogen from standard pure fuel, or renewable pure fuel comprised of biomass and is being carried out by SoCalGas to assist California emission objectives.
A reluctant govt
Lomasney, who hails from New Orleans, moved to Seattle to check physics on the College of Washington. When she first declared her main, she heard that physics was a well-liked main of the Fortune 500, the nation’s greatest companies.
She paid little consideration. Desiring to work in academia, she went on to earn a grasp’s diploma in physics, once more at UW.
She didn’t plan on a business-oriented profession, however one discovered her. Her first job was on the Boeing Co.
Later, along with her father, she “reluctantly” began Isotron Corp., which creates applied sciences to assist decontamination and environmental restoration.
For numerous causes. Isotron wasn’t in a position elevate cash, that means it needed to pay its personal payments from the beginning.
It was worthwhile sufficient that administration required its researchers to dedicate 10% of their time to non-core matters. The “10% rule” led to the metal-working discovery that led to the formation of Modumetal, her second firm.
Modumetal raised greater than $100 million to commercialize what it noticed as an industry-changing course of to supply metallic elements that resist corrosion higher than metal.
Its startup part was daunting. Modumetal discovered its progressive procedures have been already patented by Delphi, an auto elements producer. There was no approach round them, attorneys stated.
Fortune blessed Modumetal when Delphi filed for defense from collectors in U.S. Chapter Courtroom in New York in 2005, placing its patents up on the market.
Modumetal purchased them. That helped, however didn’t clear up, its IP drawback. The Division of Power had an curiosity within the know-how as nicely. It took one other three years to work out an settlement.
“If we hadn’t been persistent, that tech would have been misplaced,” she stated.
Its IP drawback solved, Modumetal constructed a producing plant on Seattle’s Lake Union. It booked orders for its line of corrosion-resistant nuts, bolts and tubular merchandise.
On Might 3, 2013, opening day of cruising season, Lomasney received an alert from the plant’s fireplace alarm.
That wasn’t uncommon. She lived a couple of mile away, which made her the primary govt referred to as when one thing set it off. Often, she’d discover {that a} sensor had misfired or another minor disaster.
This time, smoke billowed over the lake and 16 firetrucks have been idling close by. The fireplace division couldn’t discover the directions associated to the plant and wouldn’t ship in firefighters with out them.
Sorting it gave the fireplace time to develop.
“Everybody thought that was the tip,” she recalled.
The debacle had a brilliant spot: Modumetal constructed three berms round its plant to include water – yet another than required. The huge quantity of water used to battle the blaze overwhelmed the primary two, however the third held.
Modumetal discovered a path ahead. Its prospects stayed on board and a yr later, it opened a brand new plant in Snohomish.
She remained as president and CEO till February 2020 in a departure marked by a lawsuit over severance pay. On the time, she informed GeekWire she was terminated by the board. GeekWire didn’t specify the explanations for the transfer, however the firm and its founder parted on amicable phrases with both sides wishing the opposite nicely.
At present, Lomasney stated prefers serving to others develop their firms to beginning one other one herself.
Scientists and entrepreneurs
Transferring know-how developed in a lab into {the marketplace} takes a mix of scientific ingenuity and enterprise knowhow.
Lomasney acknowledged {that a} lab might not be an apparent supply for entrepreneurs. However its accomplice, Washington State College Tri-Cities is. The important thing to profitable transfers is creating groups.
To that finish, DOE carried out Power I-CORE, an intense two-month program to assist researchers focus their work on commercially viable discoveries and develop plans to deliver them to the market.
The lab’s commercialization staff works with scientists from the second they disclose innovations.
“We begin working from then,” she stated. Getting on board early permits the staff to establish alternatives – white area – available in the market.
Not all the things works. Failure is frequent however the staff is a accomplice by that as nicely.
Lomasney stated that whereas {industry} could also be eager about what’s being developed within the DOE lab community, the non-public sector extra sometimes backs extra mature know-how.
PNNL helps bridge the funding hole by reinvesting the royalty charges it receives from its licensees to assist upstarts by the early growth stage.
