We are pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Radenka Maric as Executive Director for the Innovation Partnership Building and Tech Park.
Dr. Radenka Maric is the CT Clean Energy Fund Professor in Sustainable Energy at the University of Connecticut’s Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering and Department of Materials Science and Engineering. Dr. Maric holds a PhD degree in material science and energy from Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan. Prior to joining UConn she served as a program manager and a group leader at the National Research Council of Canada (NRC), Institute for Fuel Cell Innovation. From 2001 to 2005 she was a program manager at nGimat, high tech company in Atlanta Georgia and from 1996 to 2001 a senior scientist at the Japan Fine Ceramic Center, Nagoya, Japan. After fifteen years as a researcher and program manager with experience in building and leading scientific teams in the development of nanotechnology-enabled solutions for various industries, she joined UConn in 2010. She brings her technical background in materials and energy to create, manage, and lead innovative programs designed to commercialize new products and develop emerging markets that utilize advanced materials. She has expertise in integrating emerging market needs with technology capabilities to define vision and strategies of scientific organizations, building and leading diverse teams, prioritizing programs for market development and commercialization, and managing diverse scientific and engineering project portfolios. Dr. Maric has led and continues to drive strategic efforts to build fundamental and applied research and technology commercialization capabilities in partnership with government, industry, and other academic leaders.
Her research interests include fundamental understanding of the effect of structure, defects, and microstructure on transport and electrical properties of surfaces and interfaces. In particular, she is interested in developing novel materials for fuel cell, batteries and biosensors, durability studies, performance and life prognosis, aging, material state changes, and long term behavior.
Throughout her career, she has received numerous awards for innovation and leadership development in Japan, Canada and the U.S. Dr. Maric is a Lean Manufacturing executive coach, and was elected to serve as a Visiting Professor at Tokyo University of Science. Dr. Maric is also an elected member of the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering.
Throughout her career, she’s received more than $35M in research grants and is currently the PI on two Department of Energy ARPA-E projects with United Technology Research Center to develop an Intermediate Temperature Metal Supported Proton Conducting Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Stack with Fuel Cell Energy to develop Dual Mode Intermediate Temperature Fuel Cell: Liquid Fuels and Electricity. She also holds more than 12 patents ranging from nanomaterials and coatings to fuel cells.
As Executive Director for the IPB and Tech Park, Dr. Maric will be an integral member of the UConn leadership team to identify investments that include the $132M Innovation Partnership Building and more than $40M in specialized equipment. To date, Tech Park has leveraged more than $80M in industry and federal agency projects. We are confident that with Dr. Maric’s leadership and these bold investments will enable us to attract innovative partners for research and development that will lead to technological advances, commercialization and economic development.
Mun Y. Choi Lawrence K. Silbart
Provost Vice Provost for Strategic Initiatives
For more information, contact: Office of the Provost at provost@uconn.edu