Sarah Sapouckey and Hozhabr Mozafari barely had time to break in their office chairs as the University of Iowa Research Foundation’s first-ever post-doctoral fellows when COVID-19 sent them—and most everyone else on campus—home to work remotely. But that hasn’t slowed down their work to have faculty translate their research into commercial inventions and applications.

In a joint venture with the Graduate College, the University of Iowa Research Foundation (UIRF), which helps campus inventors and creators protect and commercially license intellectual property (IP), has hired its first-ever post-doctoral student to support the office while acquiring first-hand experience of a potential and unique career path for new scientists.