I forwarded your question to an EA-aligned Stanford Law School professor who has worked in the startup space. Here is what he said (tl;dr he thinks you should patent it):
[A] patent & startup is an excellent way to protect & scale the technology. If the tech is in the public domain, it might actually deter a larger company from developing/using it because they’ll fear a competitor will use the tech and undercut their price.
The best path would likely be to patent it and then either license it to a large company or spin out a startup. If the PhD is a “scientist” type (and has no desire to be a businessperson / operator) then she might need to find co-founders to assist.
I’d be happy to pass along his contact info via DM if you want to discuss further (he is happy to chat with you). Congrats on the cool tech!
I forwarded your question to an EA-aligned Stanford Law School professor who has worked in the startup space. Here is what he said (tl;dr he thinks you should patent it):
I’d be happy to pass along his contact info via DM if you want to discuss further (he is happy to chat with you). Congrats on the cool tech!