François is responsible for driving and coordinating innovation across the University of Washington and for expanding the economic and societal impact of the UW community. He directs the CoMotion innovation hub that handles intellectual property advising, protection and licensing, trains new entrepreneurs, and supports the creation, incubation and launch of startups. As VP for Innovation, François builds connections with the investment and economic development community, industry, government, nonprofits and the local and global innovation ecosystems to shape UW innovation strategy and help inventors achieve the greatest impact from their discoveries. Achievements to date include: the creation of the UW Innovation Roundtable, a presidential-level group of venture capitalists, angel investors, and corporate fund managers that provides UW leadership with input on innovation strategy and commercialization; a license revenue sharing agreement delivering fair financial return to units investing in patent prosecution; Husky FAST start, a streamlined licensing process for university spinoffs; an Innovation Imperative web portal aggregating all innovation and entrepreneurial activities at the UW; the expansion of CoMotion wet lab incubation space and the creation of a hardware incubator; a partnership with the DoD National Security Innovation Network; assistance in establishing a site of Creative Destruction Lab within the Foster Business School, and in the launch of Pack VC, a venture fund investing in UW-affiliated startups; and the creation of the Summer Associate Venture Capital Program that identifies URM applicants for paid summer internships in local VC firms and/or portfolio companies.

François leads a class of 2018 Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC) supported by the US Department of Energy with $23.35M over eight years. This multidisciplinary effort involves 16 researchers at 6 universities (UW, UCSD, U. Chicago, Columbia, U. Tennessee Knoxville, and NCSU) and one national laboratory (PNNL; ORNL was involved in the first project period). The mission of CSSAS is to harness the complex functionality of hierarchical materials by mastering the design of high-information-content macromolecular building blocks that predictively self-assemble into responsive, reconfigurable, self-healing materials, and direct the formation and organization of inorganic components. As Director, François is responsible for the overall success of the EFRC including vision, strategy, research plans, external partnerships, scientific quality, and results.

François enjoys teaching undergraduate and graduate students and training a new breed of cross-disciplinary scientists and academic leaders.

As Chair of Chemical Engineering ($4.5M annual operating budget; ~$10M annual research awards; ~$17.5M endowment), Prof. Baneyx managed undergraduate and graduate degree programs, research programs, donor relations, departmental finances, and human resources. He grew the department to 27 core faculty, hiring 5 new faculty at all academic ranks, increased the size of the B.S. program by 25%, and quadrupled the size of the M.S. program, paying close attention to diversity at all levels of operation. He nurtured translation (5 startups by ChemE faculty and students), pioneered an educational initiative in sustainability, and transformed departmental culture and student experience by creating shared research, instrumentation and people space. In 2016-17, François led the department through a strategic planning exercise which culminated in a strategic initiative in data science. François helped raise $8M in philanthropic gifts, established 4 named professorships, 1 named lectureship, and several endowed and term fellowships and scholarships. He named a shared instrumentation facility, a teaching laboratory and a conference room after donors.

Proteios Technology, Inc. is an emerging startup focused on providing researchers and pharmaceutical companies with affordable and easy-to-use kits for purifying proteins and isolating cells. When commercialized, these kits will deliver the high yield, purity, and activity needed for biopharmaceutical production and cell therapy, while utilizing low-cost and environmentally friendly reagents. Proteios is the recipient of a Commercialization Gap Fund award from UW CoMotion and of phase I and II SBIR awards and contracts from the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.

From 2005 to 2013, François served as Director of the Center for Nanotechnology (CNT). The mission of the Center was to catalyze transformative interdisciplinary research in nanoscale science and technology, educate the next generation of academic and industrial leaders, and make available cutting-edge instrumentation for fabrication and characterization at the nanoscale to regional, national and international users. CNT was home to more than 80 faculties from 15 departments and 4 Schools and Colleges and supported the research of dozens of students with a $2.6M annual budget that included two NSF IGERT awards. CNT established the first dual Ph.D. degree in Nanotechnology in the nation which was awarded to over 90 students. In 2013, CNT was integrated with the University of Washington Molecular Engineering and Sciences Institute (MolES).

As Pacific Northwest Director of the NSF-funded National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network (NNIN), François secured nearly $3M for the purchase of advanced instrumentation, grew the Nanotech User Facility (NTUF) into a model of professionalism and efficiency, negotiated an agreement with the State of Washington Technology Center for joint operation of their microfabrication facility, oversaw a renovation and a move, and helped NNIN win a $93M renewal from NSF in 2009. Under his watch, the University of Washington NNIN site went from helping 110 individuals in 2004 to serving nearly 400 users and 34 companies in 2012.

The Genetically Engineered Materials Science and Engineering Center involved 10 faculties from 5 departments and was funded for 6 years by a $7.7M NSF-MRSEC award to explore the use of peptides and proteins for the synthesis and assembly of functional hierarchical structures useful in technology and medicine.