Elicia Maine is the W.J. VanDusen Professor of Innovation & Entrepreneurship at Simon Fraser University’s (SFU) Beedie School of Business, and Associate Vice President, Knowledge Mobilization & Innovation, Office of the Vice President, Research & International at SFU. She is also the Founder and Academic Director for the award winning Invention to Innovation (i2I) program, which develops entrepreneurial mindset in PhD scientists and engineers, while advancing commercialization strategy for university inventions.

Professor Maine has deep interdisciplinary roots, with degrees in Materials Engineering, English, Technology & Policy and Technology Management from Queen’s, M.I.T., and the University of Cambridge. Her research, published in Nature Materials, Nature Nanotechnology, Research Policy, Technovation, and Journal of Cleaner Production, focuses on enabling science innovation in the advanced materials, nanotechnology, biotechnology, and clean tech sectors. She is a frequent and dynamic keynote speaker and panelist, serves on the Boards of Directors of the Foresight Clean Tech Accelerator, Innovate BC, and the Composites Knowledge Network, on the awards committees of several translational grant programs, and is an active mentor to scientist-entrepreneurs.

As Associate Vice President, Knowledge Mobilization & Innovation to SFU’s VP Research and International (VPRI), Professor Maine provides leadership, integration, and alignment for innovation initiatives across the university, through SFU Innovates. She was honoured as Top Educator in the 2021 BC Cleantech Awards.