Lerson Tanasugarn, PhD, RTTP

Lerson Tanasugarn was a Faculty Member at the Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University for  over 27 years while working to shape the intellectual property and technology transfer policies of Thailand. In the late 1980s he served as Science and Technology Policy Advisor to the Prime Minister. In the early 1990s, he was on the intellectual property law drafting committees that modernised Thai IP laws in response to the conclusion of the Uruguay Round of GATT. In the mid 1990s, he became director of the technology transfer office of Chulalongkorn University, the first such office in Thailand. When the Central Intellectual Property and International Trade Court was established in 1997, he served as an Associate Judge for a term of 5 years. He was also on the engineering board of the National Research Council of Thailand, on the executive board of the National Center for Metals and Materials, and on the Scholarship Sub-commission of the Civil Service Commission. Additionally, Lerson has been instrumental in shaping the national policies on space affairs and more recently on chemical safety in general and on the safety of manufactured nanomaterials in particular. Lerson was also a scientific advisor at Biophile Corporation for 30 years, with involvements in developing hundreds of pharmaceutical and cosmetic products.
Synopsis
Lerson Tanasugarn received joint AB (magna cum laude) - AM degrees in biology from Harvard University in 1978 with the support of King's Scholarship. He then continued with his graduate studies and received a Ph.D. degree in biology in 1985. Basically, his research involved the use of remote sensing and digital imaging processing technologies in the study of pH changes in single living amoeba cells. In the following year he moved to Chapel Hill to become a post-doctoral fellow in micro anatomy at the University of North Carolina before returning to Thailand. After an on-the-job training in policy research while working at the prestigious Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI), he became a faculty member at the Department of Biochemistry in the Faculty of Science of Chulalongkorn University.
At Chula, Lerson taught biochemistry for almost 3 decades while working to shape the intellectual property (IP) and technology transfer policies of Thailand. In the late 1980s he served as Science and Technology Policy Advisor to the Prime Minister. In the early 1990s, he was on the intellectual property law drafting committees that modernized Thai intellectual property laws in response to the conclusion of the Uruguay Round of GATT. Around that time, he was among the first group of Thai professionals who were trained in Phase 1 of the EC-ASEAN Intellectual Property Rights Co- operation Program (ECAP) by experts from the European Patent Office to search patent documents and to draft patent applications.
​After drafting patent applications for a few years, Lerson switched to technology licensing and began taking short courses from the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) and the Licensing Executive Society (LES).  In the mid-1990s, Lerson was in charge of the technology transfer office of Chulalongkorn University, the first of its kind in Thailand.  When the Central Intellectual Property and International Trade Court was established in 1997, he served as an Associate Judge for a term of 5 years.  In the following decade, Lerson delivered several major lectures on intellectual property and on technology management for organizations like the WIPO Summer School, the Thai Bar Association, the Department of Intellectual Property (DIP), and the Thailand Center of Excellence for Life Sciences (TCELS). Recently he started taking part in the APEC-TCTC program as a participant and then as an instructor. At the beginning of 2017, Lerson was designated a Registered Technology Transfer Professional (RTTP) by the Alliance of Technology Transfer Professionals (ATTP). Lerson also established several IP and technology transfer offices at various government agencies, notably the IP Support Office in the mid 1990s and did the feasibility study in upgrading IPS into a Technology Licensing Office (TLO) of the National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA) in 2000s.
Lerson was also on the engineering and industrial research board of the National Research Council of Thailand (NRCT) on the executive board of the National Metals and Materials Technology Center (MTEC), on the National Committee for Space Affairs Development, on the Scholarship Sub-commission of the Civil Service Commission, and on the NanoSafety Sub- committee under the NANOTEC Board. In 2006, Lerson represented Thailand in the first meeting of the OECD Working Party on Manufactured Nanomaterials (OECD-WPMN) and was member of several Thai delegations to the OECD-WPMN during the following decade. Just before leaving the University at the mandatory retirement age of 60, Lerson became an external reader in the drafting of the World Health Organization (WHO) Guidelines on Protecting Workers from Potential Risks of Manufactured Nanomaterials, owing to his experience in drafting a similar guideline for Thailand's Department of Industrial Works a few years earlier.
After his official retirement at the age of 60, Lerson was appointed to the Council of Chulabhorn Royal Academy, where he has been setting up frameworks for a technology transfer system and for fostering the Academy's information technology infrastructure. Lerson has also been helping various public agencies, such as TCELS, and universities, such as Mahidol University and the Asian Institute of Technology, with technology transfer matters. More recently, he advised the Task Force for Drafting the newly proposed technology transfer promotion act that was patterned after the US Bayh-Dole law. He also led the group that put together the first draft of the resolution to the Conference on the Ethics in Science and Technology and the Sustainable Development Goals, that was held in Bangkok in July 2019.
PRESENT POSITIONs
2021
Advisory Committee Member, Chulabhorn Royal Academy
2020
Member, Committee on Research, Invention & Innovation Policy, Chulabhorn Royal Academy Council
2019
Member, Committee on Information Technology Policy, Chulabhorn Royal Academy Council
2018
Member of the Board of Overseers, Institute for Technology & Innovation Management (INT), Mahidol University
EXPERIENCE
  • IP & Innovation
  • Science Policy
  • Chemical Management
  • STEM
  • Miscellaneous
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FORMAL EDUCATION
1985 - 1986
Postdoctoral training in micro anatomy (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
1985
Ph.D. in biology  (Harvard University)
1978
joint A.B. magna cum laude & A.M. in biology  (Harvard University)
SPECIAL TRAINING & CONFERENCEs
  • IP & Innovation
  • Science & Public Policy
  • Chemical Management
  • STEM
  • Miscellaneous
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2022
TRIUP Fair 2022, Law Promoting Utilization of Research Results & Innovation Session, organized by Thailand Science Research and Innovation (TSRI) and other agencies, 4 April 2022, Bangkok, Thailand
2019
AUTM Asia 2019, 4-7 November 2019, Jerusalem, Israel
2019
 (Bayh-Dole) Compliance Course, Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM), 28-30 October 2019, Bethesda, MD, USA
2019
AUTM 2019 Annual Meeting, Association of University Technology Managers, 10-13 February 2019, Austin, Texas, USA
2017
AUTM 2017 Annual Meeting, Association of University Technology Managers, 12-15 March 2017, Hollywood, Florida, USA
2016
APEC TCTC Special Topic Program on Technology Startup, 9-10 November 2016, Seoul, Korea
2016
APEC TCTC Regional Program on Licensing and Basic Startup, 21-22 September 2016, Bangkok, Thailand
2016
First International Workshop on Intellectual Property Management and Institutional Technology Transfer, organized by Research University Network (RUN), University of California Davis, and PIPRA. 25-29 July 2016. Hua Hin, Thailand
2016
APEC TCTC Special Topic Program on Licensing, 15-16 June 2016, Busan, Korea
2016
AUTM Asia 2016, 15-18 March 2016, Chiang Mai, Thailand
2015
APEC TCTC Special Topic Program on Bio-Medical Technology Marketing, 17-18 November 2015, Seoul, Korea
2015
APEC TCTC Regional Training Program (Evaluating Invention Disclosures, Technology Marketing, etc.), 9-10 September 2015, Bangkok, Thailand
2015
APEC TCTC Special Topic Program on Technology Valuation, 8-10 July, Seoul, Korea
2015
Policy and Ecosystem Education Training Program (PEET), 11-12 May 2015, Bangkok, Thailand
2015
APEC-TCTC Basic Overview Program, 9-10 April, 2015, Seoul, Korea
2015
AUTM Asia 2015, 5-9 April 2015, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
2013
Specialist Bar in IP Study Tour, Central Intellectual Property and International Trade Court, 11-14 January 2013, Seoul, Korea
2012
Specialist Bar in IP, 24 November 2012 - 16 March 2013, Central Intellectual Property and International Trade Court, Bangkok, Thailand
2012
AUTM 2012 Annual Meeting, Association of University Technology Managers, 14-17 March 2012, Anaheim, CA, USA
2006
AUTM 2006 Annual Meeting, Association of University Technology Managers, 2-4 March 2006, Orlando, FL, USA
2005
North American Patent Workshop by Derwent World Patent Index (DWPI), 27-28 September 2005, New York, NY, USA
2005
Study Tour of Thomson & Thomson Computational Center, 26 September 2005, Quincy, MA, USA
2005
AUTM 2005 Annual Meeting, Association of University Technology Managers, 2-5 February 2005, Phoenix AZ, USA
2005
Commercialization of Research Results Workshop, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand
2004
AUTM Graduate Course, Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM), 2-10 November 2004, Tempe, AZ, USA.
2004
From Bench to Boardroom Seminar, 17 April 2004, Washington DC, USA.
2004
Program on Technology Licensing in Thailand, Association for Overseas Technical Scholarship (AOTS), 22-24 March, 2004, Tokyo, Japan
2003
Intellectual Property Office Internship. Technology Transfer, Use and Management, Agricultural Biotechnology Support Project, Phase 1 (ABSP I), 13-18 June 2003, East Lansing, MI, USA
2002
Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) - Thailand’s Department of Intellectual Property (DIP) Capacity Building Program for Implementation of World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreements in Thailand: Training of Trainers on Intellectual Property Management in Industries, Intellectual Property Management in Research Institutes, and Basics on Trade Secret Act. Bangkok, Thailand.
2002
International Business Law Conference: International Pharmaceutical Law Update, 21-26 September 2002, London, UK
2002
Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) Seminar on Licensing of Software and Digital Media, 21-23 April 2002, Chicago, USA
2002
Asia IPR Workshop, Japan Institute of Invention and Innovation (JIII), 4-8 March 2002, Tokyo, Japan
2002
Patent Agent Training, Department of Intellectual Property, and Registered Patent Agent No. 1561, Ministry of Commerce, Thailand
2000
Impact Evaluation of the Seminar attended in 1995, Association for Overseas Technical Scholarship/ Japan Institute of Invention and Innovation (AOTS/JIII), Tokyo, Japan
1998
Advanced Licensing Short Course, 19-24 July 1998, Advanced Licensing Institute, Franklin Pierce Law Center, University of New Hampshire, Concord, NH, USA
1996
Technology Transfer 1996, Licensing Executive Society (LES), 13-17 May 1996, New York, NY, USA
1995
Conference on the Effects of Intellectual Property Rights on Agriculture in Developing Countries, Instituto Interamericano de Cooperacion Para la Agricultura (IICA), Interamerican Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture and the University of Amsterdam, Bogota, Colombia.
1995 - present
Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) Mini Licensing Seminars held at several AUTM Annual Meetings in USA from 1995-present, e.g. in San Antonio, Phoenix, Charleston, Orlando, Anaheim, etc.
1995
Conference on Establishment of the National Examination for Patent Attorneys, Haikou, Hainan, China
1995
Association for Overseas Technical Scholarship/ Japan Institute of Invention and Innovation (AOTS/JIII) Training Program on Intellectual Property Rights, Japan
1995
Licensing Executive Society (LES) Licensing Course, Chicago, IL, USA
1995
BIO Conference, 20-25 May 1995, San Francisco, CA, USA
1994
Intellectual Property Office Internship. Agricultural Biotechnology for Sustainable Productivity (ABSP) Project, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, USA
1994 - 1996
Patent Drafting Courses, EC-ASEAN (3 annual sessions).
1994
Training on Search and Examination for Patent Examiners, European Patent Office
1994
Intellectual Property Training sponsored by USAID and ABSP through DIP (Thailand), Washington DC, USA
1993
Intellectual Property Study Tours (Europe and USA), sponsored by NECTEC-NSTDA, follow-up of the 1988 study tour, plus a trip to the European Patent Office, World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), and Max Planck Institute fur ausland und internationales Patent-Urheber- und Wettbewerbsrecht in Munich
1993
Intellectual Property Study Tours (Asia), Japan, Korea, and Hong Kong, sponsored by NECTEC-NSTDA
1988
Intellectual Property Study Tour (USA), sponsored by BIOTEC-NSTDA and Domnern-Somkiat-Boonma, courtesy calls and discussions at 30 government offices, law firms, and university licensing offices in 30 days
2019
International Conference on the Ethics of Science & Technology and Sustainable Development, 2-7 July 2019, Bangkok, Thailand
2017
AUTM Asia 2017  tour to observe Shenzhen (China) technological ecosystem, 23-26 April, Hong Kong
2007
Lindon B. Johnson Space Center Study Tour, 2 November 2007, Houston, TX, USA
2006
Proposal Budgeting Workshop, The Foundation Center, 8 March 2006, New York, NY, USA
1999
UN Preparatory Session on Social Development (in the capacity of Advisor to the Minister of Labor and Social Welfare), the United Nations, New York, USA
1996
Executive Short Course on Space Technology, Toulouse, France
1990
Official visit to the US with Prime Minister Chatichai Choonhavan, June 1990, Washington DC, USA
2014
4th Asia and the Pacific regional meeting on the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM), 23-27 March 2014, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
2013
OECD 12th Meeting of the Working Party on Manufactured Nanomaterials (WPMN12), 9-12 December 2013, Paris, France
2013
OECD 11th Meeting of the Working Party on Manufactured Nanomaterials (WPMN11), 18-21 February 2013, Paris, France
2012
3rd Session of the International Conference on Chemical Safety (ICCM3), 17-21 September 2012, Nairobi, Kenya
2012
OECD 10th Meeting of the Working Party on Manufactured Nanomaterials (WPMN 10), 27-29 June 2012, Paris, France
2012
Meetings of the Sponsorship Program on the Testing of Manufactured Nanomaterials, 25-26 June 2012, Paris, France
2011
OECD 9th Meeting of the Working Party on Manufactured Nanomaterials (WPMN 9), The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), 5-9 December 2011, Paris, France
2011
5th International Symposium on Nanotechnology - Occupational and Environmental Health - Exposure Assessment Methodology / Toxicological Study Methodology / Policy and Regulatory Issues, 9-12 August 2011, Boston, MA, USA
2011
OECD 8th Meeting of the Working Party on Manufactured Nanomaterials (WPMN 8), The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), 14-18 March 2011, Paris, France
2010
OECD 7th Meeting of the Working Party on Manufactured Nanomaterials (WPMN 7), The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), 5-9 July 2010, Paris, France
2009
OECD 6th Meeting of the Working Party on Manufactured Nanomaterials (WPMN 6), The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), 28-30 October 2009, Paris, France
2009
UN 2nd Session of the International Conference on Chemical Safety (ICCM2), 11-15 May 2009, Geneva, Switzerland
2008
6th Meeting of the Intergovernmental Forum on Chemical Safety (IFCS Forum VI), 15-19 September 2008, Dakar, Senegal
2007
multi-country observational study mission on Strategic Industries in (Asian Productivity Organization) Member Countries: Nanotechnology, 10-13 April 2007, Seoul, Korea
2006
OECD 1st Meeting of the Working Party on Manufactured Nanomaterials (WPMN 1), The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), 26-27 October 2006, London, England
2018
A Tour of Shenzhen Special Economic Zone and Huawei Headquarters Campus, Chulabhorn Royal Academy Committee on Information Technology Policy, 17-19 October 2018, Shenzhen, China
2013
Joomla World Conference 2013, 8-10 November 2013, Boston, MA, USA
2012
Joomla World Conference 2012, 16-18 November 2012, San Jose, CA, USA
2007
International Conference on Complex Systems, 28-30 October 2007, Quincy, MA, USA
2006
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 2006 Annual Meeting, 16-20 February 2006, St. Louis, MO, USA
2005
Seminar on Robotic Mobility Platform (RMP), Segwayfest 2005, 24 September 2005, Washington DC, USA
2002
Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village Study Tour, 18-19 April 2002, Detroit, MI, USA
2000
Garbage and Waste Water Treatment Study Tour, Science and Technology Standing Committee of the House of Representatives, 1-12 March 2000, the Federal Republic of Germany
2000
Canal Management in the Federal Republic of Germany, Study Tour organized by the Subcommittee Studying the Feasibility of a Canal Joining Andaman Sea and the Gulf of Thailand of the Science and Technology Standing Committee of the House of Representatives
1997
Tsuruga Nuclear Power Plant Study Tour, organized by the Science and Technology Standing Committee of the House of Representatives, city of Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture, Japan
1997
Synchrotron Study Tour at Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA
1995
Study tour on Supercomputers and Digital Communications at NEC, with the group from the Ministry of Transport and Communications, Tokyo, Japan
1995
Study tour on digital movie providing through fiber optics and telecommunication billing house at EDS, Informart, etc. in the USA with the group from the Ministry of Transport and Communications and from Telecommunication Authority of Thailand
1995
Study tour on Supercomputers in the United States with the group from the Ministry of Transport and Communications
1995
Iridium Network and CDMA mobile phone study tour at Motorola, Inc., USA with the group from the Ministry of Transport and Communications
1984
Seminar on “Successfully Working with People,” The American Center for Management Development, Sarasota, Florida, USA
1978
Basic Life Support Instructor Course, American Heart Association, Massachusetts, USA
1973
Speed-reading Course, Boston, MA, USA
Courses taught
 
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