From academia to industry: successful recruiting at PARK INNOVAARE

Excelsus Structural Solutions (Swiss) AG has long been planning to enlarge its team. But finding the right people is not at all easy for this highly specialized Synchrotron X-Ray Powder Diffraction (S-XRPD) service provider. By lucky coincidence, Dr. Fabia Gozzo, the company’s founder and CEO, met her new team member at INNOVATION in PRACTICE, PARK INNOVAARE’s series of workshops on technology and innovation management.

“There was an event announcement poster that read, ‘Are you a researcher and want to discover the path from the lab to the market?’. It was like it was written for me. So, I decided to attend,” recalls Mickaël Morin, who has just finished his PhD in multiferroic materials at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI). Willing to transfer from academia to industry, he was interested in meeting companies working or interested in collaborating with the Institute. What he didn’t know was that he was so close to meeting his future employer.

Finding new opportunities at deliveryLAB

It was not the first time that Mickaël had heard about Excelsus. A spin-off from the PSI, it has already made a name for itself in the research and industry community. Focusing on industrial R&D, Excelsus offers synchrotron-radiation-based analytical services to the industry, with an emphasis on pharmaceuticals. The company’s core activities are based on unique high-resolution, in-situ and time-resolved Synchrotron X-Ray Powder Diffraction (S-XRPD), a method developed at the PSI and acknowledged worldwide. At INNOVATION in PRACTICE, Dr. Fabia Gozzo was presenting Excelsus’ latest achievement: her team had been able to push the lowest limit of detection down to 0.01 wt% – an unprecedented result opening up new opportunities for the structural and microstructural analysis of materials.

Perfect transition from academia to industry

Having acquired more and more clients, Excelsus had to extend its team. “I was hoping to find the right people such as Mickaël at PARK INNOVAARE,” says Dr. Fabia Gozzo. “I was happy to offer him this position.” Mickaël will start as a scientist in June 2017 and will be working on some new projects at Excelsus. “It is an incredible opportunity. The best part is that I get to stay in the familiar environment of the Institute with access to its outstanding technologies and large research facilities, and yet I will be working at an independent industry-oriented company,” says Mickaël.

With the growing innovation ecosystem at PARK INNOVAARE, we hope to see more matches like that of Mickaël and Excelsus. A mix of cutting-edge technologies, innovative R&D projects, entrepreneurial spirit and a pool of talented and motivated people is the essence of a place where innovation truly accelerates.