Honoring Darren Fast's Impact on Canadian Tech Transfer

The AUTM Canadian Award, always a highlight during the Canadian Region Meeting, was presented this year to Darren Fast, Associate Vice-President, Innovation, Knowledge Mobilization & Partnerships at the University of Alberta. The Award recognizes Darren’s longstanding commitment to the Canadian technology transfer ecosystem, the AUTM Canadian Region Meeting, and mentoring the next generation of technology transfer professionals.

Darren helped organize the very first Canadian Region Meeting in 2016 and continues to help it evolve and grow. He was also Chair of the Canadian Committee from 2016 to 2019.

At the University of Alberta, Darren develops and supports a clear innovation strategy, utilizing and coordinating existing resources across campus and the community. This involves supporting entrepreneurs and innovators. He also works on ensuring research of all types has a clear path to add value to and have impact in the community through enabling knowledge mobilization and partnerships with industry and community organizations. He serves as a liaison to funding agencies, helping to build provincial, national, and international research collaborations as well as community research partnerships. Darren holds a PhD from The University of Alberta and has been engaged in commercialization of research for most of his career.

As Darren accepted the Award from 2024 recipient Mark Weber of McGill University, he looked back to his 15 years in tech transfer and membership with AUTM, “We have such a great community. It is so supportive. I know that I can simply pick up the phone or drop an email to somebody and I will get a helpful response.”

He continued, “There’s a lot of people that deserve thanks…the community here, people have become more than just colleagues. They have become friends, and I have been really grateful for that.”  He thanked Ken Porter and Mike Szarka, other co-originators of the Canadian Region Meeting, and Mark who also championed making the Infringers the meeting “house band”.

Darren also thanked his wife Krista, and mentees Loren Oschipok and Iva Bruhova. “I’ve been able to be a mentor, and hopefully I’ve left the community a better place than when I joined it.”

Darren’s dedication truly embodies the spirit of collaboration and growth within AUTM and is a testament to the power of shared expertise.