Hans Wiesendanger Retires
from OTL

In January 2006, Hans Wiesendanger retired from the Office of Technology Licensing (OTL) after more than 20 years as a senior associate. Hans joined the office in 1984 when OTL was starting to expand in size, having just initiated the important DNA Cloning licensing program. He was one of three senior licensing associates who staffed the office when OTL’s annual income was around $4 million and growing exponentially. Through the years he has been an integral part of the office, helping OTL attain the status it enjoys today.

Before Hans came to OTL, he gained a rich scientific background through his work as a chemist. He received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and then completed his post-doctoral training at the University of California, Los Angeles. Also, he worked at the University of Zurich as a scientist. He then went on to work at numerous companies, including SRI International, Electronics Associates, Uthe Technology, Barnes-Hind Pharmaceuticals, Plessey Environmental Systems, Chemetrics Corp., and Sequoia-Turner. Through his work at these companies, he gained knowledge of licensing in an industrial setting. He carried this experience to OTL and had an immediate positive impact on the office. During his tenure at Stanford, Hans licensed over 200 inventions and was responsible for technologies that generated more than $75 million of licensing income.

Hans is an avid writer and he has written a multitude of articles about OTL and the positive impact of licensing in the United States. A common theme of these articles is the benefits of government-funded research at universities. He presented data to show that the U.S. government obtained tangible returns (i.e. taxes) on its investments in research at universities, and that these benefits continued long after patents had expired and the university’s royalty stream had ended. Additionally, Hans wrote a history of OTL’s first 25 years, which is published on the OTL website (http://otl.stanford.edu/about/resources/history.html). In this look back, he detailed the development of the office, analyzed our modus operandi and productivity, and crystallized the factors that give OTL its character. Hans will be dearly missed at the office and we wish him the best in his future endeavors.