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July 2, 2003 – He may have the mind and credentials of a scientist, but Bill Madia, Battelle’s newly appointed executive vice president of Laboratory Operations, also appears to have the heart and talent of a businessman.
Over a career spanning 30 years with Battelle Memorial Institute, the big, not-for-profit research and development institute based in Columbus, Ohio, Madia, 56, has helped start more than 100 companies – using technologies that embrace everything from astrophysics to an automated grape picker for Napa Valley wine makers. Madia is currently lab director at Oak Ridge National Laboratories.
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In his newly created position Madia will oversee all of Battelle’s business with the U.S. Department of Energy at four national labs Battelle manages — Oak Ridge, Brookhaven, the National Renewable Energy Lab and Pacific Northwest. He will be responsible for moving technology out of the lab and into the mainstream.
With $710 million approved for nano spending by Congress for 2003, and DOE labs slated to see $139 million, small tech will be at or near the top of his commercialization list.
“There isn’t a focus in these centers on commercializing nanotech, that isn’t their mission,” said Madia. “But … because of these large investments (work is already under way on new nanotechnology center at Oak Ridge) there will be commercialization applications coming out of that.”
But there is a distinction to be drawn, cautions Madia.
As the director of commercialization efforts, he is not in a position to dictate what science DOE will pursue. It will be his job to find commercially viable projects already under way and line up outside interest. Directing that science could be a conflict of interest so Madia’s job is to remain neutral while simultaneously offering his insight to the DOE and Washington on the more promising areas of science to pursue. Often today, that means small tech.
“We’re not here to direct the government programs in certain commercial directions,” he said. “These are government labs with government missions so it’s very important for proper separation of church and state as it were. When you’re a lab director your job is to advance discovery as the steward of a lab. When you act in Battelle’s capacity, you’re looking at federal investments across the board and saying ‘How can we move those into applications?’ “
If anyone can do this, it’s Madia, said Congressman Zach Wamp (R-Tenn.), who worked closely with Madia during his tenure as lab director at Oak Ridge.
“He is a unique blend of science expertise and political acumen,” said Wamp. “It’s rare that you get both. He’s a focused, driven, type-A person who doesn’t take himself too seriously. That’s why he is so pleasant to work with; because you want somebody who dots his I’s and crosses his T’s but is not a freak about it.”
With 6,000-plus projects under his jurisdiction, finding technologies with commercial promise will not be difficult, said Madia. Particularly, when industry comes to Battelle, as it so often does, with a challenging problem to solve.
“Labs work best in an invent-to-need mode,” said Madia. “Scientists have an enormous capacity to figure non-linear solutions to problems.”
His approach to commercializing small tech will be to focus on “market-pull” ideas and match those with research being conducted at the labs. This may include pure science that involves small tech or it could be a project for an industrial partner that comes in the door with a small tech focus, said Madia.
“So, a lot of what I’ll be informed by in this new position is what the market is saying it could use,” he said. “We’ll take that market input and come back into the labs and say ‘Does anybody have any good ideas on how to do A, B or C?’ “
In this task, Madia’s solid reputation as a scientist (he holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry and wrote a book titled “Fundamentals of Nuclear Reactor Engineering for the Army,” to name just two of his many accomplishments) will come in particularly useful among his peers as he attempts to spur development of these ideas, said James Decker, principal deputy director of the DOE’s Office of Science, who’s worked with Madia for several years.
“The lab director’s got to have some sort of science reputation himself to be respected by his employees,” he said.
Madia’s personal approach is one of calm, collectedness — the picture of a man who gets things done. But this is more than mere appearance, said Wamp.
“I’ve seen no one in the country who is as ‘down-home’,” said Wamp. “I mean he drives a Harley Davidson for goodness sakes.”