Boyce Clark serves as assistant director of licensing for engineering and physical sciences at the University of Georgia’s (UGA) Innovation Gateway. His role centers on helping faculty move their inventions from concept to market, focusing on patent protection and commercialization.
“Our mission is to take inventions that professors here at UGA create, take it through the patenting process where appropriate, protect intellectual property and then take it to market,” Clark said.
UGA’s Innovation Gateway has established a strong record in technology transfer. Despite the typical three- to five-year timeline for securing patents, UGA has maintained a leading position among universities. In fiscal year 2024, UGA led the AUTM annual rankings for the third consecutive year, bringing 69 products to market. Over the twelve years since AUTM began ranking universities by commercialization output, UGA has never fallen out of the top five.
“We’re always on the hunt for the next big thing,” Clark said.
Clark joined UGA in 2022 as research and development activity in engineering increased following the founding of the College of Engineering in 2012. He anticipates further growth in biomedical engineering innovation with the opening of a new medical school.
When evaluating new products, Clark asks two questions: whether they are protectable and whether they can be commercialized. He works closely with inventors through multiple iterations during the patent application process, which often involves initial rejections and adjustments to distinguish inventions from existing technologies or adapt them for different uses.
Clark highlighted an invention aimed at improving pecan processing—a field that has seen little change in over a century. The current method often damages much of the edible portion of pecans, reducing farmers’ profits. According to Clark, this new technology could significantly increase yields for pecan farmers. “It’s very likely we are going to get that patent, because there’s nothing else out there in that field,” he said.
Clark values his role in supporting UGA’s impact beyond campus. “The ability to highlight what we’re doing here” is one aspect he enjoys about his work at Innovation Gateway.
His career spans geology, sociology, and environmental geochemistry; before joining UGA, he spent twenty years as an environmental consultant designing groundwater remediation systems globally. In 2016, seeking a solution for his daughter’s frizzy hair led him to found Lubricity Labs—a venture that gained national attention after local news coverage drove thousands of orders overnight. “When I woke up, I had 7,000 orders,” Clark said. “The website had crashed because it had exceeded 100,000 views per minute.” Lubricity Labs was later featured by major outlets but closed during the COVID-19 pandemic due to supply chain disruptions. Afterward, Clark worked at Louisiana State University’s technology transfer office before moving to UGA—an opportunity he described as “the premier place” for technology transfer amid personal circumstances prompting his family’s relocation from Louisiana.
Outside his university responsibilities, Clark pursues mixed-media art informed by his scientific background—a connection evident both in his creative process and office decor. “I’ve always moved between science and art,” Clark said. “The way I think as a chemist influences how I create as an artist, and the creativity I bring to art shapes the way I look at scientific problems.”
He creates layered photographic works using alternative processes that involve chemical techniques reminiscent of laboratory experiments: “Unlike modern digital photography, alt process is slow, methodical and forces me to be very purposeful and deliberate. The results are highly variable, which makes each piece truly unique,” Clark said. “Every experiment and every artwork is a chance to explore a question. The mediums are different, but the mindset is the same.”
In recognition of his experience bridging science and art, Clark was invited this year to present at a National Academy of Inventors meeting focused on their intersection—a topic central to both his professional work and personal interests: “Both science and art involve curiosity, problem-solving and iteration,” he said. “Scientists can also be artists. Science definitely informs my art.”
