Harvard Innovation Lab Appoints Director

Harvard University announced today that Gordon Jones will be the inaugural director of the Harvard Innovation Lab, a $20 million community center for entrepreneurship that’s slated to open this fall at WGBH-TV’s former offices in Allston. The goal of the lab is to foster startups and interactions among students, faculty, entrepreneurs, and the local community. Jones was previously a marketing and sales executive with Universal Pest Solutions, American Biophysics, and Gillette, and has worked with Harvard Business School’s admissions office. He also serves as a business advisor to a number of startups. He officially starts on May 9.

Author: Gregory T. Huang

Greg is a veteran journalist who has covered a wide range of science, technology, and business. As former editor in chief, he overaw daily news, features, and events across Xconomy's national network. Before joining Xconomy, he was a features editor at New Scientist magazine, where he edited and wrote articles on physics, technology, and neuroscience. Previously he was senior writer at Technology Review, where he reported on emerging technologies, R&D, and advances in computing, robotics, and applied physics. His writing has also appeared in Wired, Nature, and The Atlantic Monthly’s website. He was named a New York Times professional fellow in 2003. Greg is the co-author of Guanxi (Simon & Schuster, 2006), about Microsoft in China and the global competition for talent and technology. Before becoming a journalist, he did research at MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Lab. He has published 20 papers in scientific journals and conferences and spoken on innovation at Adobe, Amazon, eBay, Google, HP, Microsoft, Yahoo, and other organizations. He has a Master’s and Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT, and a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.