Erik Guzik, PhD

As Co-Director of the Montana Biotechnology Center, I lead commercialization of BIOTECH’s intellectual property portfolio—guiding innovations from the lab to market-ready solutions. My role spans strategic assessing of technologies, building collaborations with industry partners and investors, and helping transform promising bioscience discoveries into real-world value via collaboration between BIOTECH and the UM College of Business. By helping to connect scientific insight with business acumen, I work to ensure that our research generates social value, drives economic development here in Montana, and ultimately advances human health and well-being. In tandem with BIOTECH commercialization efforts, I am deeply committed to STEM outreach—especially engaging the next generation of bioscience talent. I design and partner on BIOTECH programs with high-school students and educators, offering hands-on experiences, mentorship, and exposure to the potential of biotechnology. By connecting young learners with real research and entrepreneurial pathways, I aim to inspire curiosity, build capacity in our region, and help cultivate the future workforce that will carry forward science, innovation and societal benefit.

As Assistant Clinical Professor of Entrepreneurship at the University of Montana, I teach undergraduate and MBA courses in Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Big Data, and People, Process, and Technology. I also serve as Director of the Ruffatto Startup Challenge, the University of Montana's annual entrepreneurship competition open to all UM students. The College of Business at the University of Montana is a special place focused on making students feel engaged, supported and connected. Students receive access to opportunities that enhance their educational experience, such as experiential learning opportunities, study abroad programs and sought-after internships. The UM difference means the faculty and staff in the College of Business will help students get the tools, skills, industry connections and mentoring they need to leverage all those opportunities to meet their personal and professional goals.

Director of the John Ruffatto Startup Challenge, the nation’s second oldest undergraduate startup competition. Founder and director of the UM Startup Studio, launched in 2023.

Founded PatientOne in 2016 as one of the first Remote Patient Monitoring companies in health care. PatientOne develops software tools to better connect patients with health coaches and care teams from the comfort of their own homes, improving quality of life and health outcomes.

VAST develops next generation software to teach and assess higher level thinking skills like decision-making, creativity, critical thinking, and problem solving. The award-winning VAST SaaS platform is based on the ground-breaking online learning platform developed in 2000 by founder Dr. Erik Guzik, and has been used by more than 100,000 students and employees around the world. Learn more at http://www.vastlearningsystems.com.

The Virtual Problem Solving (VPS) Program offers next generation software to teach students how to apply creative problem solving to a range of issues and challenges. VPS is currently being used by students around the globe to learn about and apply creative problem solving to some of the most challenging issues facing the world today.

Taught courses ranging from Microeconomics to Money and Banking, Business Leadership to Entrepreneurship.

Served as the Mary Jo Ragan Chair of Interdisciplinary Studies and the director for the USAO Economics Department. Taught courses ranging from Intermediate Microeconomics to Economics of Healthcare.