UC Recognizes Entrepreneurs

UC will recognize the winners of two, newly established faculty entrepreneurial awards during the 5th Annual Entrepreneurship Recognition Banquet on Friday, May 16 at 5:30 p.m. in the Kingsgate Marriott Conference Center.  In addition to the two new awards, UC will recognize the accomplishments of George Rieveschl, PhD, a UC alumnus best known for inventing the antihistamine commonly known as Benadryl, by presenting him with the inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award for Entrepreneurship.

The two new awards, Established Entrepreneur Award and Emerging Entrepreneur Award, were created for exceptional faculty achievement in promoting and maximizing the commercial potential and human benefits of university intellectual property and/or research.  Both awards were open to faculty in all UC colleges.

The Established Entrepreneur Award will be presented to Jainagesh Sekhar, PhD, professor in the UC College of Engineering.  In the past seven years Dr. Sekhar has licensed technologies to five companies, established a manufacturing company which was launched from UC and has become fairly diversified with a worldwide presence, and developed Business Materials courses.

Frank Zemlan, PhD, professor in the UC Department of Psychiatry, will be presented with the Emerging Entrepreneur Award for his development of Cleaved-Tau (C-Tau) Technology.  C-Tau can be used to diagnose subarachnoid hemorrhage in patients with normal Computed Tomography (CT) scans.  This technology can also be used to predict the clinical outcome of patients with severe traumatic brain injury and determine if drugs of abuse can cause brain damage.

The two newly established entrepreneur awards are sponsored by UC’s Senior Vice President and Provost for Health Affairs, Senior Vice President and Provost for Baccalaureate and Graduate Education, Vice President for Research and Advanced Studies and the Center for Entrepreneurship Education and Research.

Each year, the Center for Entrepreneurship Education and Research hosts the Entrepreneurship Recognition Banquet to reward the achievement of current and former faculty and students.  In addition to the new awards, the center will present Donald C. Harrison, MD, senior vice president and provost for health affairs emeritus, and Jason R. Lemon, PhD, with the Award for Entrepreneurial Excellence.  This award, established in 1999, recognizes both successful and future entrepreneurs with a connection to UC.  Current and former students will also be recognized for their endeavors with New Venture Competition and Field Case awards.  

In the spirit of entrepreneurship, the Center for Entrepreneurship Education and Research will host a speaker on Thursday, May 15 at 6 p.m. in Room 112 of Lindner Hall. 

New York developer Robert Ezrapour will present “Linking to the Future,”

a discussion about improving the future of Cincinnati’s urban neighborhoods.  The program is free and open to the public.

For further information, contact Dorothy Air, PhD, associate senior vice president for entrepreneurial affairs, at (513) 558-6054, or Charles Matthews, PhD, associate professor, UC College of Business Administration, at (513) 556-7123.  Information about new award nomination criteria can be found at

http://www.uc.edu/eawards

. 

Entrepreneurial achievement contributes to the vitality, prestige and economic growth of the university, region and state.  Recognizing the importance of entrepreneurial activity, UC has launched a number of initiatives to reward entrepreneurial achievement and educate current and future entrepreneurs.  Collaborative efforts have led to UC’s participation in the creation of the Cincinnati SoundingBoard and a regional conference on life sciences and the university’s role as an economic driver.