Tom_Flanagan

Tom_Flanagan
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Member since: Oct 12 2006, 5:22 PM EDT
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I began life as a marine biologist back before the EPA had been created. The world was a vast ocean of connections. My earliest enduring influence in the field of marine biology was the work of John Teal, through a study that he conducted on energy flow through food webs. Here I began to see the power of mapping the "unseeable" so that the world makes more sense.

Life carried me into the field of agricultural research, and then into the deep waters of physiology, neuroscience, and molecular biology. I waltzed between academic and corporate laboratories, dined with students and with Nobel laureates, and both built and sat within corporate board rooms. In 1996, I launched a small, multinational company that sought to provide physicians with tools to reduce the spread of AIDS.

The world of inventing is so much easier than the world of innovating. Innovation imposes changes in the way that folks do things. This is, of course, where all important things happen. My immersion into methodologies of this world was through a need to pull together a multinational project team to explore plans to develop a new biomedical product. Time was of the essence -- and the team’s personal time invested into the planning activity was a precious resource. To assure a rapid and thorough completion of this task, we contracted a consultant team to apply the Structured Dialogic Design process.

If the SDD process had not succeeded so profoundly, I am sure that I would still be working in the world of biomedical products. As it happens, my life changed in parallel with my understanding that so much more was genuinely possible than I had previously understood. Conversions of this sort are not uncommon within the SDD practitioner community. The power of the methodology is compelling.


Latest page update: Feb 22 2007, 11:55 AM EST

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Aleco SOFT IS HARD 0 Feb 23 2007, 7:12 AM EST by Aleco
Aleco
Thread started: Feb 23 2007, 7:12 AM EST  Watch
I particularly enjoyed reading Tom's journey, particularly his transformation from hard to soft sciences. I also have a similar journey, which blends attribures of agony with ecstacy. Agony because the soft sciences are so much harder than the hard, and ecstacy because any contribution in the soft sciences has immense implications for the betterment of humankind.
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Tom_Flanagan Tom Flanagan's Bio 0 Oct 21 2006, 10:39 AM EDT by Tom_Flanagan
Tom_Flanagan
Thread started: Oct 21 2006, 10:39 AM EDT  Watch
Tom has a broad technical training in the life sciences, from early days in marine biology, through agricultural biology, on into immunochemistry and molecular neurobiology, and then to commercial management of new product development. He has worked in many highly innovative technical teams, and has founded and led nonprofit and for profit ventures. Tom’s recent work has focused on university-industry-government linkages related to sustainable, technology-based regional economic development.

Projects
• Ocean Science & Technology
- Massachusetts has a substantial investment of social capital in the field of ocean science. As an economic development initiative, value is created if mechanisms are designed and applied to enhance the regional exchange of ideas and collaborative opportunities.
• Environmental Health
- Like many major universities, the University of Massachusetts has a significant number of faculty who share concerns for the environment and the health of our communities. To enhance university capacity to address these challenges, specific core research facilities can serve as vehicles for promoting collaborations and securing operating funds.
• Social Technologies
- Stakeholders with different training or operational goals typically view complex systems from different perspectives. To reduce or avoid “collisions of good intention” among diverse stakeholders, emerging social leaders can be trained in sociotechnical arts such as dispute resolution.
• Renewable Energy
- Innovations that span the life sciences, chemical sciences and engineering disciplines are enabling economically feasible renewable fuels. Funding for commercial operations in these areas depends upon technological assessments of substitute and competing approaches so that investors can understand risks and invest wisely.
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