UNMC graduate joins Intellectual Property Office

Michael Dixon

A new position in UNMC’s Intellectual Property Office will further help retain intellectual property rights for the university and its researchers.

Michael Dixon, who recently earned his Ph.D. in pathology and microbiology from UNMC, will serve as the IPO’s Faculty Liaison.

“As faculty liaison it will be my job to increase the visibility of the IPO office on campus and help investigators with invention disclosures and IP related contracts,” Dixon said.

“Dixon will be negotiating contracts that are integral to the intellectual property rights of UNMC faculty and which involve the transfer of materials and knowledge into the university,” said Leonard Agneta, J.D., director of UNMC’s Intellectual Property Office.

“Michael will negotiate the terms that relate to future intellectual property of the university,” Agneta said. “He’ll be looking out for faculty members while also considering the needs of UNMC.”

In addition, Dixon will be the faculty members’ primary contact for invention disclosures. UNMC generally receives 25 to 30 disclosures a year, although the IPO hopes to increase the number to 50.

UNMC’s Intellectual Property Office is in the Campus Training Center on 42nd Street between Emile and Leavenworth streets.

“Our goal is to have all those doing research on campus participate in our technology transfer activities and increase the number of quality invention disclosures received by the IPO,” Agneta said.

Agneta and Dixon hope every UNMC researcher takes advantage of the IP office. Those who receive federal grants are obligated to disclose their inventions to the IPO so that UNMC can meets its obligations to report the inventions to the respective agencies providing the funds. Researchers who do not receive federal grants also benefit from getting involved with technology transfer through the IPO because proceeds generated from the licensing of a university patents are shared with the inventors and their departments.

A Presho, S.D., native, Dixon graduated from Northern State University in Aberdeen, S.D., before starting a five-year Ph.D. program with UNMC Eppley Cancer Center researcher Bob Lahue, Ph.D. His dissertation examined the mechanism behind a unique class of human genetic diseases.

Dixon served on the UNMC Student Senate for four years and was president of the UNMC Graduate Student Association. Married to Holly Dixon, a pediatric occupational therapist at Munroe-Meyer Institute, he enjoys basketball, softball and golf.

For more information on intellectual property, visit the IPO Web site at unmc.edu/ipo.