Academic entrepreneurship refers to university faculty engagement in commercialization of research and innovative activities that are beyond their academic work in research, teaching, and service in their university. Academic entrepreneurship includes three types of entrepreneurial activities: academic patenting, technology licensing, and generations of university spin-off firms. The present investigation focuses on faculty entrepreneurs who are engaged in university spin-off firms (USOs) and examines how faculty entrepreneurs perceive their two roles—the entrepreneurial role and academic role—in the university and how they reconcile the tensions between these roles. Critical scholars have claimed that academic entrepreneurship has inherent conflicts with faculty’s academic roles in research and teaching and could lead to an erosion of university missions in the education of students and service to the public (Slaughter & Leslie, 1997; Slaughter & Rhoades, 2004). However, empirical evidence suggests otherwise: Faculty participation in entrepreneurial activities benefits the missions of the university—by generating more research, more revenue, and more economic impact (e.g., Azouley et al., 2009). This scholarly debate motivates the present investigation to address how faculty entrepreneurs, if at all, change or alter their academic roles and priorities in the context of academic entrepreneurship. The investigation relies upon a qualitative research design with a dilemma analysis approach to interview. The primary data rely on 40 semi-structured interviews with faculty entrepreneurs in Bioengineering and Computer Science departments at University of California, Los Angeles, University of California, Irvine, and University of California, Riverside. Additional data were collected from Entrepreneurship Center directors and students who study with the faculty participants with regard to faculty engagement in entrepreneurial activities. The three universities were selected based on their entrepreneurial outputs: UCLA, UCI, and UCR are respectively at high, medium, and early stage of their entrepreneurial process. Findings indicate that faculty entrepreneurs adopt a hybrid logic of academic professionalism and entrepreneurship to connect their entrepreneurial engagement with their academic roles. By doing so, faculty participants developed an academic entrepreneurial identity—they possess both academic values and entrepreneurial norms and attribute a social mission to their entrepreneurial activities. To construct and develop an academic entrepreneurial identity, faculty entrepreneurs are obliged to segregate their audiences between academics and entrepreneurs, as well as their resources for their academic research and their entrepreneurial research. They also delegate their work to either their students or business entrepreneurs to maintain their main academic identities. In faculty’s balancing the two roles, the institutional environment and support of the university play critical roles. If the university mission aligns with the entrepreneurial goals of faculty, then faculty entrepreneurs are more likely to integrate their entrepreneurial activities into their teaching and instruction. In turn, the enhanced teaching and instruction can contribute to the educational goals of their university. However, if the university’s mission does not align with the goals of faculty entrepreneurial activities, then faculty are most likely to find themselves caught in conflicts between their two roles, where they cannot achieve a balance, and, eventually, they have to give up either the entrepreneurial role or the academic role. Implications for policies and practices are discussed in the final chapter of the dissertation.

Acoustic waves are induced via the thermoacoustic effect in objects exposed to a pulsed beam of both ionizing and non-ionizing radiations. This phenomenon has interesting potential applications in both radiotherapy dosimetry and treatment guidance as well as low-dose radiological imaging. The objective of this thesis is to further investigate the clinical translations of acoustic waves elicited by ionizing radiations, specifically X-rays, and heavy particle beams, exemplified by proton beams, and demonstrate their potential applications in the forms of X-ray-induced acoustic computed tomography (XACT) for diagnostic radiology and proton-induced acoustic (PAI) imaging for radiotherapy dosimetry and treatment monitoring.In clinical radiological imaging, absorption-based CT imaging has been an invaluable tool in medical diagnosis. However, CT requires a large set of projection data and high radiation dose to achieve superior image quality. X-ray induced Acoustic Computer Tomography (XACT) is a novel imaging modality that combines the high contrast of X-ray and the detailed resolution of ultrasound to achieve fast imaging in three dimensions (3D). Comparing to traditional X-ray CT, A 3D volumetric image can be obtained from a single X-ray projection with XACT imaging. For the first time, we report the experimental demonstration of three-dimensional XACT reconstruction from a single X-ray projection angle. Proton-induced acoustic imaging (PAI) is a novel and low-cost radiotherapy monitoring method designed for both clinical and FLASH-rate proton beams. The study, conducted both in a water tank and on an anthropomorphic phantom, aims to demonstrate that Photoacoustic Imaging (PAI) technology is fully capable of three-dimensional in vivo imaging for proton dose deposition from clinical dose rate to FLASH-ready dose rate. The fidelity of the current PAI system iteration was rigorously assessed in terms of Bragg peak shape and range within an ideal medium—water. Further substantiating its clinical applicability, the human phantom study provided insights into how PAI would operate in a formal clinical treatment setting.

The interplay between charge, spin, and orbital degrees of freedom in many-electron solid systems results in a large variety of strongly correlated phenomena. Correlation of electrons lies in the heart of the strongly correlated physics, but also masks the essential physics leading to a certain observed phenomenon. The quest of a minimal model material and clean manipulation method is sometimes regarded as the key to solve problems in the field. Even though layered properties of certain strongly correlated materials have been known for decades, methods of preparation and manipulation of atomically thin materials have to wait until recent years. The last two decade have witnessed the booming of research in two-dimensional van der Waals materials and various methods have been developed for layered materials. The current development in this area allows the application of these methods into more complicated systems in order to search for the essential physics covered in the bulk compounds. In this dissertation, we explore the application of these techniques in the study of strongly correlated physics in $1T$-TaSe\textsubscript{2}, and Fe\textsubscript{3}GeTe\textsubscript{2}. The fabrication of high-quality samples enables the detection of intrinsic physics in these systems. Disentangling the in-plane and out-of-plane physics through mechanical exfoliation provides a minimal model of a bulk material and helps solve the mystery of metallic properties in bulk $1T$-TaSe\textsubscript{2}. The flexibility in the formation and tuning of various heterostructures provides not only interesting systems to study, but also useful tools to characterize and manipulate electronic states in layered strongly correlated systems. We use a novel Kondo heterostructure to probe monolayer magnetic properties in $1T$-TaSe\textsubscript{2}, which is challenging for bulk sensitive detection methods. On the other hand, due to their special layered structure, two-dimensional strongly-correlated systems may exhibit novel properties not present in the bulk, as in the case of Fe\textsubscript{3}GeTe\textsubscript{2} nanoflakes. We have discovered unusual magnetotransport properties in this system. Easy access of properties in two dimensional systems allows for a thorough diagnosis of this phenomenon. We hope to provide new perspectives from the study of constituents of complicated bulk materials.

Thin films of Nafion, p-phenylenediamine (PPD) and crosslinked choline oxidase (ChOx) were coated onto a Pt rotating disk electrode (RDE). A MSR electrode rotator with a three-electrode system was used to evaluate the mass transport properties of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) within these thin films at room temperature. Diffusion coefficients of H2O2 within Nafion, PPD and crosslinked ChOx were obtained from Koutecky-Levich analysis. The obtained values are (2.4 � 0.2) � 10-7 cm2/s for Nafion, (1.7 � 0.3) � 10-8 cm2/s for PPD and (2.9 � 0.3) � 10-6 cm2/s for crosslinked ChOx using a simple diffusion model. An extensive comparison of the results to many reported in the literature suggests good agreement. These diffusion coefficient estimates provide good parameter values for mathematical models of thin-film coated biosensors that require Nafion and PPD coatings for permselectivity.