Austin Smith, is the Innovation and Partnerships Office (IPO) Business Development Executive responsible for handling commercialization efforts, IP management, and partnership creation for Advanced Manufacturing, Instruments, Sensors and Electronics at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL).
Austin has over thirteen years of experience as an applied scientist, chemist, and R&D Program Manager in Silicon Valley. Early in his career, he focused on optical polymers, ligands, and formulation chemistry aiding the commercialization of Nobel Prize-winning Quantum Dots. As of 2024, these nanocomposites have been placed in more than 1,500 products and over 70 million displays, making them widely available in today’s market. His experience developing products gives him an application-oriented focus for technology transfer and partnership development.
His time in industry has given him insights into technology maturation by working on programs at different stages of their maturation and commercialization. Austin is an inventor with more than a dozen patents in the areas of Quantum Dot nanocomposites, optical polymer formulations, and transparent organic photovoltaics. He has a B.S. in Chemistry from UC Davis where his honors research focused on multicomponent organic synthesis of novel stereospecific targets submitted to the Molecular Libraries Small Molecule Repository.
When he is not at work, Austin enjoys California’s diverse nature, learning more about world history, studying the history of science, and spending time with his friends.