Dr. Steven J. Hallam is the Principal Investigator at The Hallam Lab. He is a Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) scholar and UBC Associate Professor at the UBC Department of Microbiology & Immunology. Steven is Canada Research Chair on Environmental Genomics.
Steven and one of his students, Cameron Strachan, co-founder and CEO of MetaMixis, participated in g.e@ubc’s Lean Launch Pad (LLP) for Genomics sessions. Steven and Cameron are excellent examples of successful researchers addressing the commercial challenges of transferring their research from the ‘lab’ to the ‘field’, and thus benefitting Canada’s social and economic development:
“(Cameron) actually discovered this option, which was the Lean Launch Pad program, and tried to pull me into that. So he brought me to that. It took a student to catalyze that for me and to make me realize that there are all these structures out there that don’t take me away from my core or my values, but actually enable me to better project myself into the world and have an impact.” Steven Hallam. Hallam explains that there are parallels between science and entrepreneurship “When you think about it, if you go through a natural academic trajectory and you start a lab, you basically started a small business”
On June 30 2014, Hallam’s team announced the invention of a new biosensor that could help optimize bio-refining processes that produce fuels, fine chemicals and advanced materials. The improved understanding of adaptive, eco-engineered lignin transformation could also lead to applicable industrial processes. More Information Here. Read MetaMixis founders Cameron Strachan and Steven Hallam’s recent publication in PNAS here.
We asked Steven a few questions about his journey ‘outside the lab’
Principal Investigator Steven Hallam on Entrepreneurship: “I want to be in charge of my own destiny” from UBC UILO on Vimeo.
g.e@UBC’s Interview with Cameron Strachan
We interviewed Cameron Strachan, co-founder and CEO of MetaMixis. He shared with us his story of how he was able to apply his experiences at the genomics.entrepreneurship’s entrepreneur accelerator, the Lean Launch Pad, in his work outside the lab. Read Cameron’s interview here.
