Background
The University City Science Center accelerates technology commercialization, regional economic development, and the market availability of life-enhancing scientific breakthroughs by bringing together innovations, scientists, entrepreneurs, funding, laboratory facilities, and business services. Established in 1963 and headquartered in Philadelphia, the Science Center was the first, and remains the largest, urban research park in the United States. Graduate organizations and current residents of the University City Science Center’s Port business incubators have created more than 15,000 jobs that remain in the Greater Philadelphia region today and contribute more than $9 billion to the regional economy annually.

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Stephen S. Tang

Stephen S. Tang became president and CEO of the University City Science Center in February 2008. The Science Center is the nation’s oldest and largest urban research park. Tang is the first president in the Science Center’s 47-year history who has led a company through venture funding and an initial public offering and also served as a senior executive with a large life-sciences company. Tang served as group vice president and general manager with Olympus America, where he led U.S. operations for the company’s $1 billion global Life Science businesses. Before joining Olympus in 2005, he was president and CEO of Millennium Cell. Previously he served as vice president and managing director of the global pharmaceutical and healthcare practice of A.T. Kearney, and he was vice president and co-managing director of the global chemical and environmental practice for Gemini Consulting, now known as Cap Gemini. Tang earned a doctorate in chemical engineering from Lehigh University, an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, and a B.S. in chemistry from the College of William and Mary.

Christopher Laing

Christopher Laing provides direct R&D strategy support to Science Center Port business incubator companies, facilitates their access to Greater Philadelphia’s academic and clinical communities through the Science Center’s Scientific Advisory Board, and oversees the Science Center’s QED Proof-of-Concept Program, which launched in April 2009. Laing began working with the Science Center as a consultant in 2003 and joined the staff in 2006. He has helped raise more than $20 million in equity-sparing federal funding to support product development by small technology companies. His expertise includes experience in the commercial development of a wide range of technologies, including drugs and biologicals, medical devices, diagnostics, and research tools. Laing has a Ph.D. in molecular endocrinology, and completed postdoctoral training at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He is a Member of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons in the United Kingdom.

Han Cao

Han Cao founded BioNanomatrix in October 2003 as a spinout of an $8 million Princeton University Project funded by Defense Advanced Research Project Agency of the U.S. Department of Defense. Cao is a co-inventor of the company’s core single-molecule nanochannel array whole genome analysis technology. He received a B.S. from the University of Science and Technology of China and a Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of Delaware. He worked in China's National Key Laboratory of Plant Genetic and Protein Engineering at Beijing University, the Global Plant Genomic Unit of DuPont, the Institute for Human Gene Therapy at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center, and the Nanostructure Lab of the Electric Engineering Department of Princeton University. BioNanomatrix has been honored by the Ben Franklin Technology Partners, Frost & Sullivan, and the MIT Technology Review as superior in emerging technology.

Benjamin Pascal

Benjamin Pascal is president and founding partner of Invisible Sentinel in Philadelphia. Pascal received a B.S. in biology from George Washington University, where he was also awarded a Fulbright Scholarship. Pascal went on to earn an M.B.A. from Lehigh University. While at B. Braun Medical, he held several leadership positions and was named the North America Innovator of the Year among a field of over 6,000 employees. During that time, he led a seven-member team through the development of B. Braun’s first antimicrobial medical device and filed three patents for his innovation. He has been on numerous market-launch teams and has extensive manufacturing and validation experience. Additionally he is HAACP certified and well versed in HACCP guidelines and implementation. Much of Pascal’s current work focuses on managing the development of novel platforms and sampling systems for food-related diagnostics.