Meet Alice Zents, a UTRGV Unsung Hero
Text by Priscilla Ramirez, student staff writer
Photos by David Pike: https://www.flickr.com/gp/utrgvnews/LR26bB
Alice Zents typically has a quiet day at the office. Still, she knows that no matter what her daily objective might be, she ultimately is responsible for easing the minds of inventors on campus.
She handles intellectual property and legal services for UTRGV, so she’s a busy woman. And in her 13 years of experience, there has never been a repetitious day.
Zents she has a steady stream of work throughout the year in order to make sure everyone within the department has what they need.
“A lot of researchers here at UTRGV work through the holidays on their technologies in hopes of patenting their inventions,” she says. “I’m here to help make things easier for them.”
Whether it’s engineering, medicine or filmmaking, every field that brings in its creative projects fascinates Zents and teaches her something new.
“I’m in a great position, and I’m happy,” Zents says. “Interacting with researchers and seeing the variety of what’s being created at UTRGV brings me joy.”
WHAT IS YOUR ROLE AT UTRGV?
Our work at the Office of Research Translation is really varied! Since employees are required to disclose inventions to UTRGV, I get to interact with a lot of different faculty and others about their research in various ways — through conversations, via the UTRGV disclosure forms, and when researchers need various agreements that affect UTRGV-owned intellectual property. We correspond with licensees who pay UTRGV to use and continue to develop technologies invented here, and with potential licensees to see if they want to talk with us about UTRGV technologies.
I also correspond with our law firms who handle the legal process of patent prosecution, and make sure we timely report inventions supported by U.S. government funding to the agencies who funded the research.
HOW LONG HAVE YOU WORKED HERE?
Innovation and Intellectual Property, as we were known then, in 2009. I worked part-time for a little over four years. In late 2014, I returned to full-time work in this office, which was called Office of Technology Transfer at the time. We were renamed Office of Research Translation during the transition to UTRGV. So, I’ve worked at the legacy institution and the current institution for 13 years as of 2019, most of it full-time. And I still have a lot to learn about my work!
DESCRIBE YOUR AVERAGE DAY
On any usual day, I’ll probably email with a couple of UTRGV researchers and a couple of our law firms. I might request payment of some bills or invoice a licensee for reimbursement or royalties. I’ll work on a few agreements of various kinds, and try to work in some research on UTRGV inventor-disclosed work or update the information we track for various purposes. Like I said before – variety!
WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE PART OF THE JOB?
The fact that I get to admire inventors and researchers as I’ve watched them work over the years! Our inventors spend an amazing amount of time bringing technologies to a point where UTRGV can protect them legally. It can mean long years of really intense focus, in addition to their teaching responsibilities. Many of our faculty incorporate this activity with their teaching, and this creates significant opportunities for students. Sometimes they are inventors, too, but even when they are not, they may work on publications or start developing their own ideas. It’s a pleasure to see this happen — just as great as seeing UTRGV technologies used by our licensees.
DO YOU HAVE A FAVORITE MEMORY OR STORY FROM YOUR TIME HERE?
It’s not a single memory, really, but more of an early impression that intellectual property was a bigger universe than I’d worked in before. That means I get to go continue learning about it as I work, and that’s a pleasure second only to being a student.
