UW News

October 12, 2011

Durand speaks on ‘Talea as part of entrepreneurial faculty series

Music Professor Joel Francois Durand has listened to music in some of the finest concert halls in the world, so when it comes to listening to recorded music, hes a pretty demanding consumer.

Joel Francois Durand

Joel Francois Durand

In fact, it was his own discerning standards that drove Durand into becoming first an inventor, then an entrepreneur. He developed a high-end tonearm called the Talea, and created a startup, Durand Tonearms LLC, to distribute it. Hell be telling his story at 8 a.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 18, as part of the Presidential Entrepreneurial Faculty Fellows Lecture Series.

The result of over 2,000 hours of research and development, Durands tonearm was conceived, designed and realized mostly in the machine shop of the UW Mechanical Engineering department, with resources and help from several departments, including Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, the School of Music, the School of Art, the Business School and the School of Law, as well as the Center for Commercialization.

Durands lecture is titled Bringing a High-end Audiophile Product to Market: the Talea. It will be in the Walker-Ames Room of Kane Hall, with breakfast included. The lecture is free, but registration is required.

The series, hosted by the Center for Commercialization in partnership with the Office of the President and the Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship, is designed to inspire UW students and faculty to pursue commercialization by showcasing UW faculty who succeeded in translating their research into products and therapies, initiated groundbreaking programs for translation or established model collaborations with industry.

Also on the schedule are:

NOV 8: Buddy Ratner, Bioengineering & Chemical Engineering

An Academic in Entrepreneurship Land: 10 Lessons Learned, Some from the Mad Hatter and March Hare

10 a.m., Walker-Ames Room, Kane Hall

NOV 29: Carla Grandori, Pharmacology

Cures for Cancer—Hidden in Plain Sight? An Enterprise to Accelerate their Discovery

8 a.m., Walker-Ames Room, Kane Hall