Martin had entered what technology transfer officers refer to as the valley of death, the barren gulf between the basic science and a prototype good enough to pique the interest of an established company or a venture capital firm.
And universities in Asia--indeed, extending all the way to the Arab Gulf and the King Abdullah megaplex for science and technology in Saudi Arabia--are rising to offer an alternative.
For Ben King, an associate professor of chemistry at the school, one of the challenges in making the connection between science and technology is the gulf in communication between people.