John Dement
John Dement
October / November 2011
Volume 9 Number 5
Strategically connecting technology and people is the foundation of John Dement’s success as technology transfer program manager at Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division. Since 2006, Dement’s leadership and creativity are driving forces behind multiple tech transfer studies and programs as well as numerous agreements between the Warfare Center and industry and academia. As a Hoosier, Dement brings a friendly approach and strong Midwest work ethic to his work as he continues to find new outlets for enhancing the visibility of Crane’s expertise and technologies.
Dement said many of his long-term goals are being reached ahead of schedule and tech transfer efforts are producing tangible results—including seven new startups, nine patent license agreements and 26 CRADAs documented since 2006.
Partnerships are being forged throughout the state and across the country, from Crane’s location in southern Indiana on the world’s third largest naval installation. As each new relationship is cultivated, Dement continues to expand the laboratory’s reach and reputation as a strategic partner in the ever-evolving tech transfer community.
Dement is the impetus for Crane’s educational partnership agreement with Ball State University’s Entrepreneurship Center. Students in the Center’s Military 2 Market (M2M) program work directly with Crane-patented technology and inventors to create new products for commercial use. The program has garnered national recognition from U.S. News & World Report and National Defense Industry Association’s National Defense magazine and has proven successful at transferring technologies into the marketplace. Examples include a simulated skin originally developed by Crane inventors for use in ballistic testing now exclusively licensed by a 2011 Ball State graduate’s startup company as a more realistic training device for medical students and professionals; a Beam of Life Device, a man-portable laser that burns through steel in seconds and could enable emergency responders to more quickly free entrapped victims, which is in the licensing process from another Ball State graduate who also has created a startup company.
Another student is developing a lightweight torch that can cut metal in seconds using a combination of thermite and oxygen to produce extreme heat as well as a “black box” originally designed by the Navy as a communication device to share digital and analog information on a single network. It is being marketed to school districts as a better way to monitor buses and riders while finding the most efficient and cost-effective routes.
Under Dement’s guidance, the division has a growing network of eight local partnership intermediary agreements (PIAs) and nine universities to optimize economic and educational development to further spur technology transfer. Of note is the partnership with Growth Alliance for a Greater Evansville (GAGE) to build better relationships between the government and the private sector. The pact with GAGE is a technology transfer agreement that enables southern Indiana businesses to benefit from Crane’s science and technology expertise as well as its facilities and resources. Crane’s “shareable” patents are made available to businesses with a vested interest in technology to make military products perform better, be more cost effective, and find new applications that transcend military use.
Dement is confident that with Crane’s nearly 2,000 scientists, engineers and technicians working on solving technical problems for the nation’s military, this agreement has the potential for unprecedented economic transformation for the region.
In 2010, Dement received the Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer Midwest Regional Coordinator's Excellence Award, which recognizes an FLC laboratory representative for significant contributions to the FLC program during the past year. Dement was selected for his role in creating and leading an innovation discovery process, which is designed to quickly identify multiple inventions in strategic areas, creatively train lab personnel and management and expose Crane’s people, intellectual property, facilities, equipment, and other “shareable resources” to external partners and intermediaries. The division partnered with the University of Southern Indiana’s Center for Applied Research to host four events, funded by the Navy’s technology transfer program. The events enlisted experts from business and academia and resulted in 20 projects reviewed, 88 potential inventions identified and 282 potential commercial applications revealed.
Dement earned a degree in civil engineering from the University of Evansville and a master’s degree in public administration from Indiana University. Before beginning his career with the Navy, he worked as a structural engineer on the F-15E Strike Eagle for McDonnell Douglas. He began with the Navy as an engineer working on submarine-towed array handling equipment, which grew into management and culminated with a year-long assignment in 1996 as a systems engineer in Washington, D.C. In 1997, Dement was selected as the science advisor to the Pacific Fleet’s maintenance officer, a one-year assignment based in Hawaii where he was awarded the Navy’s Meritorious Civilian Service Award for technology transition to the fleet. In 1990 he joined Crane and established the technology engagement office ( whose mission is to proactively and innovatively create technology-based business partnerships with industry and academia that bolster the division’s mission.
In the five years Dement has worked with tech transfer initiatives, the amount of revenue earned for the Navy through CRADAs has increased significantly. But more important, the relationships Dement has made allow him to share his knowledge of Crane with businesses, entrepreneurs and students forging their own paths in the field of technology.
Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division, is a Naval laboratory and a field activity of Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) with focus areas in special mission, strategic missions and electronic warfare/information operations. The Warfare Center’s research and development efforts provide capabilities and resources to advance technologies for the military.
Amanda Craft is a writer in Crane’s public affairs office; Regina Coeby is a writer at the Naval Surface Warfare Center.
Copyright © 2012 | Innovation America