The Office for Research celebrated and honored the 2025 Rutgers Innovation Awards recipients with peers, industry executives, and Rutgers University leadership.
In its second year, the Rutgers Innovation Awards (RIA) recognized researchers who have demonstrated excellence by developing a breakthrough idea, process, or technology that has the potential to benefit society and create economic value.
Rutgers executive vice president for academic affairs and chief academic officer Keena Arbuthnot, PhD, and senior vice president for research Michael E. Zwick, PhD, presented awards to the 2025 winners, following introductory remarks that set the tone for the ceremony.
The event also recognized current Rutgers inventors who were issued U.S. patents during the fiscal year 2025 and innovators with non-patent intellectual property that did not receive the award in prior fiscal years and are either licensed with received revenue or licensed multiple times with or without revenue, as well as Office for Research Technology Transfer Trainees who completed their year-long appointments.
“The Rutgers Innovation Awards highlight the importance and value of teamwork in research," said Zwick. “Societal challenges are becoming more complex, and the requirements for solving them constantly evolve for faculty, students, staff, and industry. We are all in this together, and we are a team with one goal: to leave a better world for our children and future Americans so they can pursue opportunities and make a life as rich and rewarding as the one we are privileged to live."
“The innovations being recognized through these awards are forward-thinking and meaningful, spanning a remarkable breadth of disciplines, each pushing the boundaries of knowledge, creativity, and discovery,” said Arbuthnot. "Our faculty’s work raises the academic profile of Rutgers and addresses some of the most pressing challenges our society faces, and they do so with rigor and measurable impact."
Nominated by their peers or themselves and reviewed by teams of external experts in each award field, the 10 winners were scored based on novelty, competitive advantage, impact, utility, socio-economic value of the innovation, and the significance of the problem solved.
Each Innovation Award team member received a certificate, while patent recipients and non-patent intellectual property honorees were presented with plaques to honor their achievements, and the FY25 Tech Transfer Trainees received certificates.
For more information on the Rutgers Innovation Awards, click here.
Rutgers Innovation Awards – Honorees 2025
Undergraduate Student Innovation:
Samantha Fernandes & Myungsik Yoo – Rutgers–New Brunswick, School of Arts & Sciences
Graduate Student Innovation:
Muhammad Khizar Anjum – Rutgers–New Brunswick, School of Engineering
Postdoctoral Fellow Innovation:
Tao Yin, Metin Yesiltepe, Sanjay Kisan Metkar, Luciano D’Adamio – Rutgers Health / NJ Medical School
Early Career Innovator:
Diana Vargas-Gold – Rutgers–Newark / Rutgers Health, NJ Medical School (Public Health Research Institute)
Rutgers Startup Award:
NovoPedics, Inc. – Michael Dunn & Charles J. Gatt Jr. – Rutgers–New Brunswick / Rutgers Health, RWJ Medical School
Social Innovation:
Woojin Jung – Rutgers–New Brunswick, School of Social Work
AI / Digital Innovation:
Partho Sengupta & Naveena Yanamala – Rutgers–New Brunswick / Rutgers Health, RWJ Medical School
Physical Sciences & Engineering Innovation:
Huixin He, Zhiyuan Zhang & Junjie Ouyang – Rutgers–Newark, School of Arts & Sciences-Newark
Health Sciences / Biomedical Innovation:
Selvakumar Subbian, Salvatore Marras, Anshika Narang & Christopher Vinnard – Rutgers–Newark / Rutgers Health, NJ Medical School (Public Health Research Institute)
Agriculture Innovation:
Eric Lam – Rutgers–New Brunswick, School of Environmental & Biological Sciences
Patent, Non-Patent & Tech Transfer Honorees (FY25):
David Alland, Rebecca Brody, Glenn Amatucci, Eva Andrei, Huixin He, Partho Sengupta, Martin Yarmush
