Millennium Café

Richard Geiger, a serial entrepreneur, presents a practical overview of launching a university spin‑out, highlighting why startups are often the best path for early‑stage, high‑risk technologies. Geiger outlines the essential elements of success: achieving strong product–market fit, building a balanced founding team, developing an effective partnership with the technology transfer office, creating a robust IP strategy beyond the initial university patent, and securing early non‑dilutive and investor funding. He also discusses common pitfalls—such as misjudging technology readiness, misaligned founders, and restrictive licensing terms—to help new ventures avoid preventable setbacks.

Richard Geiger
Office of Technology Transfer

Materials engineering, radiation science, and medicine are converging to enable the next generation of imaging, therapy, and radiation protection technologies. This talk introduces a vision for a Penn State initiative in medical physics to unite interdisciplinary research and education in this rapidly evolving field. We will discuss potential ways to engage researchers across engineering, physics, life sciences, and medicine to build a collaborative ecosystem for innovation in medical physics, radiation technologies, and education.

Enjoy your spring break.

Spider silk is well known for its exceptional strength and flexibility, yet most mechanical studies focus on orb‑weaving spiders. Tarantulas use silk differently: lining burrows, reinforcing habitats, and marking territory,  rather than webbing. As a result, its mechanical performance may differ substantially but remains largely unexplored.  I will present tensile testing results from silk collected across multiple tarantula species. Our initial findings suggest that different tarantula groups produce silk with distinct mechanical “signatures.” I will highlight key results, examine their significance for understanding mechanical variation across species, and outline future directions.

Beth Last | Penn State Behrend

The Spirit of Chocolate Project is a collaboration that blends art, history, and science to tell the 5,000-year story of cacao, its origins with Indigenous communities of the Amazon, its cultural meaning, and its connection to today’s farmers. Drawing on Penn State’s long legacy in cacao and chocolate research, the multimedia project uses visual art, a replica of an ancient cacao vessel, interviews, and even a living cacao tree to invite viewers into the world behind chocolate. We will share how this creative work intersects with our cacao research at Penn State and highlight opportunities for new interdisciplinary collaborations across campus. Chocolate from cacao origins will be available to taste.

Mark Guiltinan & Siela Maximova | Plant Science

Due to the weather conditions on the University Park campus, activities and work activities will be canceled until 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, March 3. The Millennium Café will postpone the scheduled talks until later this month.