Dr. Gerald Wilson

Biography

Gerald O. Wilson is the inaugural Director of Entrepreneurship at EnterpriseWorks and a Clinical Assistant Professor at the Technology Entrepreneur Center at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He is responsible for the strategic development and implementation of vision and infrastructure to establish and accelerate a cross-campus culture of entrepreneurship. His focus includes anticipating mechanisms to secure and grow entrepreneurship programs and resources to assist ecosystem members in company creation, funding, management, and growth through the incubation phase. Dr. Wilson leads staff supporting entrepreneurship programming and business development clients at the EnterpriseWorks incubator, provides technology commercialization support for researchers and entrepreneurs, and catalyzes promising startup companies. Prior to joining the University, he was the President and CEO of Autonomic Materials, Inc., where he led the development of advanced materials aimed at eliminating traditional trade-offs in high-performance corrosion protection. Dr. Wilson has substantial expertise in developing new chemistries for various applications and has authored or co-authored 70 peer-reviewed articles and holds 30 patents. He earned his B.A. in Chemistry from Macalester College and a Ph.D. in Materials Science Engineering and an M.B.A. from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Research Interests

Experience