The Business behind Science and Technology: How Ana Downing Applies Academics to CyBIZ Lab Work
What does chemistry, carbon capture, and organic metallic catalysis have to do with business consulting and market research? Senior in Chemistry (College of Liberal Arts and Sciences), Ana Downing, has been exploring the intersection of science and business at CyBIZ Lab since Spring 2025. In the past year, Ana has contributed to five projects and has risen from Student Consultant to Team Lead.
Ana Downing
Ana stumbled across CyBIZ Lab programming after her experience in the LAS Start Something Academy. A teaching assistant for the program at the time, Ana’s boss connected her with Alex Andrade, Director of CyBIZ Lab, for a project that required chemistry expertise.
“Without someone like Ana on the team, these projects would be much more difficult for the CyBIZ Lab team to understand and conduct market research on,” Alex says.
Intersection of Science and Business
“I really enjoy learning about the science and the technology behind each of the tech transfer projects,” Ana says.
Technology transfer projects work with newly formed businesses that have a product, process improvement, service, or technology license but are still figuring out how to sell it.
University professors and scientists can apply for an Iowa Innovation Fund (IAF) to commercialize a technology they have invented or improved. A part of the funds goes toward market research and customer discovery of their technology, and that is where CyBIZ Lab comes in.
On a CyBIZ Lab project she worked on in the fall semester, Ana collaborated with an environmental engineer. The area of study was new to Ana, but her curiosity drove her to learn more.
“He was improving wastewater cleaning systems, and that was really interesting to learn about. I’ve never gone into that realm, but I learned I enjoy it a lot,” Ana says.
On another project, Ana explored cost analysis. Having never encountered cost analysis before, Ana turned to her peers on her project team. CyBIZ Lab projects encourage students to work together and to approach problems as a group.
“I felt like I could easily reach out to O’Neal (Daniels), one of the MPAs [Managing Project Advisors], and he was super helpful with the cost analysis,” Ana says.
Ana and her teammates spent time documenting the chemicals and technologies used in the project. A planner and a very detail-oriented person, Ana enjoyed organizing the project’s financial data.
“It was really interesting to me seeing how a business starts from the ground up in a financial sense,” Ana recalls.
Making Research Accessible for All
One area where Ana’s passion shines through is in creating content that is accessible to both the scientific community and the general community. Ana recognized that the science and business industries have jargon that is not easily understood by individuals outside of those industries. While working on her project’s final presentation documents, she creates structured documents that provide user-friendly navigation.
“You have so many scientists that don’t speak the same language as you, so being able to be very diligent with your language and also the formatting of the document is super important to me,” Ana shares.
Although Ana has been writing scientific reports for a while, she says creating final reports and presentations for CyBIZ Lab that are easy to read and understand is an area where business principles can be directly applied to chemistry.
“Being diligent and having good organization all carry over.”
Rising Through The Ranks
Ana started at CyBIZ Lab working on a tech transfer project for a carbon capture company, where she first experienced the challenge of breaking down scientific understanding into simpler terms for teammates and clients.
“Being able to take it from my understanding from being in a lab for two years, having worked on carbon capture, and then having to tell it to people that haven’t taken a science class since high school, is super important,” Ana said.
As a student consultant, Ana had the opportunity to:
After one semester of work as a business analyst with CyBIZ Lab, Ana stepped up to the plate and took on the role of team lead. As one of a few science and engineering students involved in the program at the time, Ana recognized the skills she could lend.
“I felt a responsibility to step up and be able to communicate between scientists, because communicating with business people, professors, and scientists is so different,” Ana recalls. “I felt like I could bring those skills to the table.”
As a team lead, Ana:
“I know a lot more about what’s going on as a team lead, especially with communicating with the client,” Ana said.
What’s Next for Ana?
Ana plans to use what she has learned in CyBIZ Lab as she transitions to graduate school, where she hopes to pursue the study of organic-metallic catalysis, a process that combines organic materials with metal catalysts to generate a variety of reactions. Communicating scientific findings clearly can be a struggle, but Ana is approaching it with a newfound confidence.
“Being able to communicate science is super important,” Ana said. “You need to learn how to defend your science and be able to formulate good ideas without faltering, and with good confidence.”
Reflecting on her experiences, Ana says:
“I am very appreciative that CyBIZ has continued to provide me with opportunities to not only practice those skills, but to bring a new form of thinking to the table.”
