Fiona Murray

Murray studied at Merton College, Oxford, where she earned her BA degree in 1989 and MA in 1990, both in Chemistry.^[2] She moved to the United States for her graduate studies, where she worked in applied science at Harvard University.^[3] For her research Murray studied decision making surrounding renewable energy policy in China.^[4] She obtained an AM degree in 1992 and a PhD in 1996 from Harvard, both in Applied Sciences.^[5] After completing her doctorate Murray returned to the University of Oxford, where she was appointed a lecturer at the Saïd Business School. She held a fellowship at St Catherine's College, Oxford.^[6]

Murray joined the MIT Sloan School of Management faculty in 1999.^[7] She works on connecting academics to entrepreneurs^[2] and specialises in biotechnology, biomedical science, clean energy,^[2] innovation ecosystems, deep tech and geopolitics.^[3] She helps scientific start-ups and spin-outs develop their business strategy across the public and private sectors.^[2] She teaches two courses at MIT Sloan, including innovation teams and new enterprises, and launched the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship Entrepreneurship & Innovation degree in 2006.^[2]

Murray is Faculty Director of the MIT Innovation Initiative.^[3] Through this role, she has launched programmes supporting African entrepreneurs in fundraising, networking, and business development, as well as initiatives to promote diversity in innovation.^[8][9] With Scott Stern, she co-directs the MIT Regional Entrepreneurship Acceleration Program (REAP), a two-year programme that brings leaders from developing regional ecosystems to MIT to improve innovation-driven entrepreneurship in their respective economies.^{[citation needed]}

In 2020, Murray found that women scientists are 16% less likely to score highly on grant proposals, a gap she attributes to gendered differences in word choice.^[10] She has studied the differences between men's and women's patenting rates, as well as investigating where women inventors are located.^[11] Together with her first Ph.D. student at MIT, Prof. Kenneth G. Huang (National University of Singapore),^[12] they showed in 2009 that gene patents decrease follow-on public genetic knowledge, with broader patent scope, private sector ownership, patent thickets, fragmented patent ownership and gene's commercial relevance exacerbating their effect.^[13]

In 2023, she founded the MIT Murray Lab, a multilateral research group that focuses on deep tech and geopolitics.^{[citation needed]}

Murray served on the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom's Council for Science and Technology from 2014 to 2016.^[14] In 2023, she was appointed Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors of the NATO Innovation Fund alongside venture capitalist Klaus Hommels.^{[citation needed]}

In 2015, Murray was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the New Year Honours for services to entrepreneurship.^[2][15] She was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (DCMG) in the 2023 New Year Honours for services to science, technology and diversity.^[16]

• Murray, Fiona; Stern, Scott (2005). "Do Formal Intellectual Property Rights Hinder the Free Flow of Scientific Knowledge? An Empirical Test of the Anti-Commons Hypothesis". Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization. Cambridge, MA. doi:10.3386/w11465.
• Murray, Fiona (1 December 2002). "Innovation as co-evolution of scientific and technological networks: exploring tissue engineering". Research Policy. 31 (8–9): 1389–1403. doi:10.1016/s0048-7333(02)00070-7. ISSN 0048-7333.
• Murray, Fiona (2004). "The role of academic inventors in entrepreneurial firms: sharing the laboratory life". Research Policy. 33 (4): 643–659. doi:10.1016/j.respol.2004.01.013. ISSN 0048-7333.
• Huang, Kenneth; Murray, Fiona (2009). "Does Patent Strategy Shape the Long-run Supply of Public Knowledge? Evidence from Human Genetics". Academy of Management Journal. 52 (6): 1193–1221. doi:10.5465/amj.2009.47084665. S2CID 16944597.