Amanda McCullough has quickly become a driving force behind technology transfer success at the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division (NSWC Crane). She joined NSWC Crane’s Technology Transfer Office in 2022 and immediately elevated the intellectual property capture, management, and planning approaches of the role, raising the number of invention disclosures by 169% from fiscal year 2023 to fiscal year 2025. Her focus on technology transfer outreach led to an 80% increase in new license agreements and a 36% boost in new partnership agreements in the same period.

McCullough impressed her colleagues and leadership with her ability to look at the lab’s work and see something visionary. In her first year, McCullough launched “Tech Talk Tuesday,” a podcast she hosts that shines a light on innovations from the lab that can be used in the public domain. She has a talent for taking this information and making it useful for both internal and external audiences. McCullough also revamped the invention disclosure process for NSWC Crane, cutting the time from four hours to 30 minutes and reversing a downward trend in the lab’s disclosure numbers. The form and process she implemented are being reviewed for implementation across the entire Department of the Navy.