UC to celebrate Research + Innovation Week

The UC Office of Research will celebrate the ideas, applied solutions and the real-world impacts of UC research, scholarship and creative activities during its annual Research + Innovation Week from March 20-24. The weeklong celebration kicks off UC’s new initiative, titled Next Lives Here Urban Futures Pathway Bioscience and the Bioeconomy, and will include opportunities for the entire UC community to join.

“As part of the Next Lives Here acceleration phase, the Office of Research is excited to host community discussions on how UC’s research community can support and lead efforts to enhance the biosciences and bioeconomy in our region,” Vice President for Research Patrick Limbach, PhD, said. “I am thrilled about the program of events for this week, as these are directly aligned with our Research2030 goals of national prominence and research with impact.”

Research + Innovation Week will begin on March 20 with the Annual State of Research Town Hall. Valerio Ferme, PhD, UC’s executive vice president and provost, and Limbach will host the discussion.

This presentation will take place from 12:30-1:30 p.m. March 20 and is free and open to everyone to attend virtually.

UC President Neville Pinto, PhD, will be joined by one of America’s most successful venture capitalists, Mark Kvamme. Kvamme is co-founder and partner of Drive Capital, a Columbus, Ohio-based venture capital firm that has raised more than $2 billion to invest in startups since its founding in 2013.

Together, they will discuss the intersection between business, technology and the bioeconomy — and what role research institutions play now and in the future.

Moderating the discussion will be Jai Chabria, managing director at MAD Global Strategy, a public affairs firm now with an office in Columbus, Ohio.

The panel discussion will be from 12:30-1:30 p.m. March 21 and is free and open to everyone to attend virtually.

An engaging panel will discuss natural resource sustainability as it relates to food, energy and water.

The panel includes:

• Meeka Owens, Cincinnati City Council member and chair of one of the first local government committees in the nation to prioritize climate change
• Tim Donovan, CEO of Donovan Energy, an energy innovator
• Rick Michelman, CEO of Michelman, a Cincinnati-based global developer and manufacturer of specialized sustainable chemistry
• Ryan Mooney-Bullock, executive director of Green Umbrella, the regional sustainability alliance of Greater Cincinnati, with hundreds of member organizations and individuals focused on enhancing the environmental health and vitality of the region

The panel discussion will be from 12:30-1:30 p.m. March 22 and is free and open to everyone to attend virtually.

Mildred Cho, PhD, associate director of the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics at Stanford University, will deliver the Hutton Lectureship on Ethics and address moral engagement, disengagement and conflicts in development of health care artificial intelligence.

UC’s Hutton Lectureship on Ethics is an endowed lectureship named in honor of John Hutton, former dean of the UC College of Medicine. Offered once a year, the lecture focuses on current topics facing our society.

The lecture, which will be from noon-1 p.m. March 23 at UC’s Medical Sciences Building, is free and open to everyone to attend virtually.

The week concludes with the university’s provost and vice president for research presenting the annual faculty excellence awards as well as the research mentoring awards to faculty nominated by college leadership.

The Office of Research Core Value Partnership Awardees, which honors UC faculty and staff partners who have “demonstrated respectfulness, positivity and overall professionalism in their interactions” with the staff of the Office of Research, also will be recognized.

For more information about Research + Innovation Week and to register to attend any of the week’s events, visit https://research.uc.edu/researchweek.

Featured image at top: A 2022 Research + Innovation Week panel discussion. Photo/Margot Harknett