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Not many lawyers are also molecular biologists.

But it's George W. Cox's eclecticism that helps make him an ideal new chairman of the Frederick County incubator, which focuses on biotechnology, information technology and green technology.

Cox, 49, "is knowledgeable of intellectual properties and his skills in science and business are what we need in a board member," says Michael J. Dailey, executive director of the Frederick Innovative Technology Center Inc. "He has been a great resource."

Cox has been a part of the Frederick community since 1987, when he came to the National Cancer Institute at Fort Detrick to complete his post-doctoral fellowship and to train in molecular biology and immunology.

With a bachelor's in chemistry and zoology from Ohio Wesleyan University and a Ph.D. in pharmacology from Ohio State University, Cox also taught pharmacology and conducted biomedical research at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda.

He's now a lawyer with Miles & Stockbridge after receiving his law degree in 2006 from the Washington College of Law at American University. "I worked at a large patent firm during the day and I went to law school at night," he said.

Cox practices corporate and general business law, plus intellectual property law.

"This was an opportunity to work with emerging life science and high-tech companies," he said.

Cox joined FITCI as a member of its biotechnology client selection committee, later joining the board before becoming chairman.

The recession dampened interest among aspiring entrepreneurs through the first part of this year, Cox said, but there is a resurgence of startups looking into joining the incubator.

Of the incubator's 10 "graduate" companies, nine are "doing well," Dailey said. Despite the recession, the incubator has still experienced "fairly good results."

The incubator has 17 tenants and 10 "virtual" clients, he said, with another virtual client in the works.

Virtual clients tap FITCI's resources but are not in the incubator's 15,000-square-foot location on Metropolitan Court in Frederick.

Jason Balog has worked with Cox at Miles & Stockbridge for the last four years and said Cox can meld science and the law well.

"He speaks science and is trained as a lawyer," said Balog, principal chairman of Miles & Stockbridge's Life Sciences, Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical practice group. "He brings a practical approach and can help translate legal language that scientists wouldn't understand and vice versa."

Among FITCI's plans is the consolidation of its operations at its Monocacy facility, which includes the incubator moving out of its 10,000-square-foot space at Hood College this month. The Hood location opened in 2004, while the Monocacy facility, now with 15,000 square feet, opened in 2007.

But the incubator board is seeking a larger, more permanent facility, Cox said, with more space for startups, plus "mezzanine" space for companies that have outgrown their incubator space but need larger laboratory space and are not yet ready to move into their own facility.

Cox, a New York City native and Middletown resident, is married with two children.