Birk is responsible for managing technical services and laboratory areas at UF Innovate | Accelerate @ Sid Martin Biotech. As an experienced chemist, Birk assists startup companies with technical questions, shared equipment training, and maintenance of shared scientific instruments. He also ensures regulatory compliance, assists with facility operations and improvement initiatives, and acts as an IT liaison, ensuring seamless operations and a safe environment, fostering an atmosphere conducive to innovation and research.
Birk grew up in Iowa and graduated with a B.S. in chemistry from the University of Northern Iowa. Post-graduation, he moved to Gainesville to help plant a church, utilizing his skills in event production and music, while also working at the University of Florida. He began at the UF College of Pharmacy in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry as a laboratory technician responsible for managing the department’s shared lab spaces and scientific equipment, ensuring safe research activities. Before joining the UF Innovate | Accelerate team in 2023, he worked at the UF Clinical and Translational Science Institute’s Translational Drug Development Core. There, he developed LCMS methods for core projects, assisted with drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics studies, and performed timely data analysis to report high-quality results to the clients.