Wyatt Technology Corporation wins SBA’s Tibbetts Award

Wyatt Technology logo

Wyatt Technology Corporation today announced that it has received one of the prestigious Tibbetts Awards (http://archive.sba.gov/aboutsba/sbaprograms/sbir/tibbetts/index.html) from the Small Business Administration (SBA) for its role as the world’s leading provider of analytical light scattering instrumentation. The Small Business Administration presents the awards (also knows as “Tibbies”) to companies and individuals that have advanced technological innovation and economic growth.

“An SBIR award by the Department of Defense in 1982 enabled me to found Wyatt Technology,” said Wyatt Technology CEO, Dr. Philip J. Wyatt. “We were able to use the special instruments developed during that program to form the basis for a new line of laser-based instruments that eventually would revolutionize the means by which scientists throughout the world would analyze their samples.”

By the time the contract’s 2nd Phase ended in 1984, and with the full-time participation of the two Wyatt sons, Geof and Cliff, Wyatt Technology was well on its way to changing from a one-man operation to becoming the world’s leading developer and manufacturer of these specialized instruments.

By 2011, Wyatt Technology’s instruments had been deployed in the laboratories of:

• 8 Nobel Prize winners,
• 25 members of the National Academy of Sciences
• 25 Howard Hughes Medical Investigators

These, in addition to most of the world’s leading biotechnology, petrochemical, chemical, and industrial companies, as well as the most prestigious universities and national laboratories on the planet.

The Tibbetts Awards are made based on three criteria:

• Technical innovation – e.g., how the technical innovation has advanced national priorities in R&D, how the technical innovation has benefited the federal government or private citizens
• Business impact – e.g., job creation and retention, revenue growth, successful acquisition or financial exit
• Broader social and economic benefit – e.g., encouraging women and minority participation in R&D, supporting regional economic development, creating connections to local universities

Dr. Wyatt accepted the award at a ceremony this morning in Washington, DC.

Afterward, he met with SBA Administrator, Karen Mills, and attended a reception at the White House.

“This is a great day not only for Wyatt Technology and its team members, but also for the city of Santa Barbara” said Sean Greene, SBA’s Associate Administrator for Investment and Senior Adviser for Innovation. “Companies like Wyatt Technology represent the best in American ingenuity.”

To learn more about Wyatt Technology, please visit www.wyatt.com or e-mail [email protected]