Travis Woodland
Travis Woodland, Commercialization Manager, began working for the WSU Research Foundation/OIPA in December, 2007 as a Federal Reporting Officer (FRO). As the FRO, Travis was responsible for ensuring Washington State University’s compliance with the Bayh-Dole Act. His current position as Commercialization Manager involves reviewing the research of WSU staff and faculty for potentially marketable technologies which involves: assessing invention disclosures, marketing WSU technologies and working with attorneys to file patent applications.
Travis is a native of southern Idaho. He is a member of the Washington State Bar and received his Juris Doctorate from The University of Idaho College of Law in 2008. Prior to attending law school, Travis earned a bachelors of science in chemical engineering from the U of I and is working toward a masters degree. Currently his areas of research include designing hybrid-electric powertrains for autonomous underwater vehicles and analyzing additives and design modifications intended to increase the power density and life-cycle performance of lead-acid batteries. As an undergraduate, Travis also worked as a research assistant at the University of Idaho in two separate projects: one analyzing thin film deposition of hydrophobic organic molecules onto silicon and another designing waste methanol recovery systems for biodiesel-from-waste-oil production lines. He has also worked at Idaho State University analyzing nuclear magnetic resonance images of DNA fragments and on a separate project determining a mechanism for producing conformation-specific reactions for use in the pharmaceutical industry.
As someone who has done research for most of his adult life, Travis enjoys working at the WSU Research Foundation because it gives him the opportunity to helps WSU researchers see their ideas graduate from the academic stage and into commercialization. While not every invention becomes a finished and marketable product, many WSU technologies are utilized in other ways that facilitate further important research, help industries become more efficient, and sometimes even save lives. He believes that the work done at the WSU Research Foundation and similar agencies worldwide is instrumental at moving technology from the labs of our brightest citizens and into the hands of the industries and people that need it the most.
