Kevin C. O'Brien, PhD., has had a breadth of industrial experience ranging from Fortune 500 companies to pre-IPO start-up organizations. Dr. O'Brien has previously commercialized new products and has performed a variety of functions including sales and marketing, business development, and project management. He has managed multidisciplinary international project teams. Dr. O'Brien has established and managed both international as well as domestic sales channels. His PhD research evolved around nanotechnology and self-assembling molecules. He received awards from The Dow Chemical Corporation for excellence in research and development, as well as Raychem's Quality Award for the successful development and launch of new product lines.

Dr. O'Brien directed the development of the first product, a medical device called QuickCastTM for a pre-IPO company, Landec Corporation. QuickCastTM received R&D magazine's coveted R&D 100 award for one of the top 100 inventions in 1995. The launch of this product line enabled the successful IPO for Landec Corporation. While at Landec Corporation, Dr. O'Brien established the Clinical Research Group and coordinated interactions with clinical research sites as well as medical research facilities.

Dr O'Brien focus has been to develop interactions between the private sector, funding sources, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. For example, he received the Federal Laboratory Consortium Award for Excellence in Technology Transfer Award for his efforts in transferring technology for non-invasive glucose monitoring. His current role is to develop new business opportunities and build new Research and development programs for the Engineering Directorate. He also works with two NSF funded Science and Technology Centers. Dr. O'Brien serves as the Associate Director of Knowledge Transfer for the Center for Biophotonics, centered at the University of California at Davis, and assists the Center for Adaptive Optics, centered at University of California at Santa Cruz, in their knowledge transfer and industrial interaction activities.

Dr. O'Brien's research interests include structure property relationships in polymers, self-assembling structures for biocompatibility, medical devices, separation technologies, nanotechnology, and MEMS.

Dr. O'Brien is a member of the steering committee for Biomedical Engineering at the University of the Pacific the steering committee for NANOSIG (The NanoSIG is a Special Interest Group focused on commercializing nanotechnology with a mission to provide a forum to further the business interests of investors, labs, entrepreneurs, companies & service providers) the Silicon Valley Association of Software Entrepreneurs (SVASE) and Pharmaceutical Project Managers.