Fiona Murray received BA and MA degrees in Chemistry from the University of Oxford before coming to the United States where she received her doctoral degree from Harvard University's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Her research interests then moved away from the bench to the study of science commercialization, the organization of scientific research and the role of science in national competitiveness. After a short time on the faculty of Oxford's Said Business School, Prof. Murray joined the MIT Sloan School of Management where she studies and teaches innovation and entrepreneurship including the campus-wide iTeams course developing "go-to-market" strategies for breakthrough innovations developed in MIT labs.
Murray works with a range of firms designing global organizations that are both commercially successful and at the forefront of science. These firms seek to leverage the ideas of a wide range of internal scientists, as well as external innovators accessed through traditional research contracts as well as “Open Innovation” mechanisms. Her recent engagements have focused on relationships that span the public and private sectors. She is particularly interested in new emerging organizational arrangements for effective commercialization of science including public-private partnerships, not-for-profits, venture philanthropy, and university-initiated seed funding.
Murray is well-known for her academic work on how growing economic incentives — for example intellectual property (IP), influence the rate and direction of scientific progress — particularly in the areas of genomics, stem cells, and mouse genetics. She is actively involved in U.S. and European policy debates over the appropriate use of IP and licensing in universities and more recently debates on when and when not to use patents to promote discovery research in neglected diseases.
F. Murray (forthcoming). "The Oncomouse that Roared: Hybrid Exchange Strategies as a Source of Productive Tension at The Boundary Of Overlapping Institutions". American Journal of Sociology.
K. Huang and F. Murray (forthcoming). "Does Patent Strategy Shape the Long-Run Supply of Public Knowledge: Evidence from Human Genetics." Academy of Management Journal. (Abridged version published in Academy of Management 2008 Best Paper Proceedings)