Category: UW events

Provost Ana Mari Cauce, paraphrasing something I said when I first arrived in her wonderfully succinct way, described the UW’s recent success in commercialization aptly: “Dreaming is important, but dreaming is not enough.” For entrepreneurial Huskies, our Center for Commercialization (C4C) fosters the dreamers into doers, and yesterday we celebrated the center’s latest extraordinary achievement: 18 new startups in the past fiscal year. That number beats our record from the previous year and gives us a two-year average that makes us first in the nation. Even more important, it highlights how a campuswide innovation ecosystem is developing a new generation of innovators who simply dare to do.

C4C’s robust infrastructure provides support every step of the way, from connecting enterprising faculty to mentors, venture capitalists and leaders in the business community to offering students myriad opportunities to do research and participate in entrepreneurial training, mentoring programs and competitions. It not only engages discovery and learning, but it is one more way to make an impact by extending what we do on campus out into the world to do good.

At C4C’s second annual UW Startup Celebration, Gov. Jay Inslee, state and local legislators and many members of the UW and greater community came together to reflect on the bold vision that led us to this success. From medical devices and therapeutics to software and clean technology, these startups represent the breadth and depth of the impactful, life-changing research that takes place every day on our campuses.

C4C has a lot to celebrate this year. Its New Ventures Facility was named “emerging incubator of the year” by the 2014 University Business Incubators Global Index, which cited the center’s ability to produce startups with high survival and growth rates, success in fundraising and job creation levels well above the global average. The economic benefit to Seattle, the Pacific Northwest region and the state is exponential as our success attracts investors, creates family-wage jobs and leads to an increase in interstate commerce and exports.

Most importantly, C4C’s accomplishments make an impact on the greater good. Congratulations to Linden Rhoads and her entire team for making the world a better place for us all.

Since its inception 225 years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court’s role remains vital to our founding fathers’ vision of a tri-partite and balanced (as in ‘checked’) government—of the people, by the people and for the people. The justices who have been appointed and confirmed by the other two branches of government over the past two centuries stand as testaments to the wisdom and steadfastness of the original conception of the court.

Yesterday, the University of Washington was delighted to host the Honorable Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. We were honored to have her here.

As a younger man fresh out of law school, I had the privilege to serve as a clerk for William Rehnquist when he was an Associate Justice, and I had a front-row view of the remarkable workings of the Court. Every single time the Court issues a ruling, the justices set, affirm, or challenge the trajectory of America, and in turn, their decisions impact the world. Being one of the nine places an enormous burden on the individual members of the Court.

Justice Sotomayor’s story is an inspiration to all of us. When named to the Court in 2009, she became only the third woman in its history and the first of Hispanic origin. Sotomayor’s personal story is the focus of her book, My Beloved World, which was released in 2013 and offers an openness uncommon for a sitting justice.

One of Justice Sotomayor’s remarkable abilities is to communicate about the law and the Court’s decisions in ways that make both accessible to a wide range of audiences, from the scholarly legal community to undergraduate students to preschoolers. Yes, preschoolers: She twice appeared on Sesame Street in 2012, including this appearance about the Supreme Court.

To enrich the UW with Justice Sotomayor’s visit, Undergraduate Academic Affairs facilitated the development of seminars and book groups around campus. The School of Law, the Evans School of Public Affairs, and the departments of Political Science and Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies offered courses, seminars and reading groups, each grounded in a reading from Justice Sotomayor’s memoir. In addition, several hundred undergraduates received a free copy of My Beloved World so that they could read the story of this remarkable woman.