ACS Entrepreneurship Summit 2017
A group of nine ESTEEM students took on a 10 hour drive to Washington D.C. for the ACS Entrepreneurship Summit from November 15-16. The nine ESTEEM students in attendance consisted of Melissa Connolly, Juan Cisneros, Natalie May, Nic Zenker, Adrian Rodriguez, Barrett Nelson, Cian O’Donnell, Sean Bolton and Thomas Mitchell. The two days in Washington D.C. were filled with guest speakers in chemistry entrepreneurship, networking, and sightseeing.
The first day of the conference consisted of talks about the innovation of chemicals outside of the pharmaceutical industry and how chemistry is at the core of large scale innovations, for example autonomous vehicles. Later in the day, there was also a panel of pharmaceutical innovations and how to obtain venture capital. On the second day of the conference, students went through a workshop of prototyping, due diligence, licensing, patenting, and other aspects involved in chemical start-ups. Students had an opportunity to network with all of the individuals that work for different chemical start-ups and pharmaceutical companies, including many who were interested with partnering with an ESTEEM student. At the end of the conference, students left time to sightsee in the nation’s capital, and all returned to Notre Dame with great stories and knowledge to share.
