WOOSTER, Ohio -- Ohio State University's Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC) has selected Shauna R. Brummet as president and executive director of its BioHio Research Park in northeast Ohio. She will begin her position in April.
Brummet will be responsible for operations, development and recruitment of tenants for BioHio -- a first-in-the-state business and technology center aimed at advancing the growing and promising field of agricultural biosciences, which includes high-impact areas such as renewable energy and materials, food safety, genetic crop improvement and environmental remediation.
"We are very excited to be able to attract Shauna Brummet to this position," said OARDC Director Steve Slack. "We conducted a national search, which attracted many outstanding and talented candidates. Shauna emerged as our first choice because she has a wealth of experience as an entrepreneur working with multiple corporations in multiple settings, and because she presented a compelling vision of where she saw the BioHio Research Park going and growing."
A resident of Wadsworth, Ohio, Brummet has over 20 years of experience as a scientist and manager at a variety of companies engaged in bioscience research and commercialization. Previous positions include chief operating officer for Fluence Therapeutics, a University Hospitals/Case Medical Center spinoff commercializing photodynamic therapy for several skin conditions, and director of strategic industry innovation alliances and grants for Akron's Austen BioInnovation Institute.
Brummet has also been vice president of the board and chief scientist for Alpaca Registry, Inc. of Lincoln, Neb., the largest alpaca livestock registry in the world; vice president of program management for NineSigma, a Cleveland-based provider of open innovation solutions where she worked with clients such as Procter & Gamble, Dow Chemical and Kraft Foods; and senior and principal scientist at United States Biochemical Corp. and Amersham Life Sciences of Cleveland, where she launched the first commercial DNA sequencing service in the country.
"I am honored to be selected as the inaugural leader of the BioHio Research Park," Brummet said. "I look forward to the achievements in technology commercialization and business development that the outstanding faculty and research leadership at OSU/OARDC, coupled with the community and business leaders of Wooster, Wayne County and the state of Ohio, will bring to life."
Brummet said her goals include developing state-of-the-art facilities for agbioscience commercialization activities as well as programs and initiatives that support companies, entrepreneurs, government agencies and OARDC faculty and students. She anticipates these activities will lead to job and wealth creation in the community, national distinction for the university, and global impact on human and animal health and the environment.
Brummet has a master's degree in analytical chemistry and a doctorate in chemistry/biochemistry, both from the University of Akron. She also holds an MBA-equivalent through company training at Amersham Life Sciences and previously conducted postdoctoral work in molecular biology at OARDC.
BioHio Research Park includes a 95-acre site adjacent to the OARDC campus that was recently enhanced with an improved access road, job-ready site preparation and utilities in partnership with the city of Wooster. Cleveland-based quasar energy group operates its flagship anaerobic digester on this site. Also available to tenants is Pounden Innovation Hall, which offers flexible office and laboratory space.
The research arm of Ohio State's College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences, OARDC is the largest university agbioscience research center in the United States.
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