fabrication, an important method for making airplane parts. A shipyard welder straight out of high school, Matsen brought a lot of real-world experience and practical metals knowledge when he joined Boeing in 1983. He also brought a respect for protecting intellectual property and patenting his ideas. As a Technical Fellow, Matsen teaches and encourages younger employees to transform their ideas into intellectual property value. “It’s not like in school, where they give you a problem and the professor already knows the answer,” said Matsen, who, like Georgeson, is with Boeing Research & Technology. “At Boeing, they give you a problem because they don’t know the answer. And so, when you come up with a solution, it’s probably something new.” Matsen relentlessly submits inventions, knowing some will hit while others will miss. As a hitting average, though, Matsen’s record rivals even those of the best baseball players, having disclosed 174 inventions, with 58 issued as U.S. patents. “Marc was inspiring to me because he wasn’t afraid to make disclosures and be turned down,” Georgeson said. “I remember asking him at one time, ‘So, how many patents do you have?’ And I was, like, ‘What!’ He had something like 30 patents!” These days, Georgeson files about 15 to 20 invention disclosures a year. Being part of a team helped him get back in the game emotionally. “I have only been successful in this arena because I have been fortunate to work with many inventive people and on some high-quality technology teams,” Georgeson said. “I have found that collaboration and cross-pollination produce the best innovation. And you definitely have more courage to put forth your ideas when you’re standing with a team.” n candace.k.heckman@boeing.com BOEING FRONTIERS / SEPTEMBER 2012 41
Frontiers September 2012 Issue
To see the actual publication please follow the link above