STC.UNM will recognize more than 60 inventors at its 15th annual Innovation Awards Dinner on Thursday, April 12 at The University of New Mexico Student Union Building (SUB) Ballrooms B & C. The event will honor faculty, staff and students who have received U. S. issued patents, trademarks and registered copyrights within the past year.

The university inventors run the gamut from first-time inventors to experienced inventors and include UNM professors, research professors, distinguished and Regents professors, professors emeriti, staff members, and postdoctoral students. The inventors represent departments and research/clinical centers across the main and health sciences campuses that reflect a strong level of collaboration. Several inventors are being honored for multiple issued patents.

As part of the awards dinner, the 2018 STC.UNM Innovation Fellow Award will also be presented to Dr. Sang M. Han, Regents Professor in the Departments of Chemical & Biological Engineering and Electrical & Computer Engineering, who will be recognized for his achievements as an outstanding UNM inventor. Also recognized will be UNM Distinguished Professors Cheryl L. Willman and Plamen Atanassov, who have been named 2017 Fellows of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). This national honor recognizes academic inventors who have demonstrated a highly prolific spirit of innovation. 

David S. Joseph, co-founder & CEO of Avisa Pharma, Inc., will be the keynote speaker. Joseph has 40 years of executive healthcare and life science management experience as the co-founder and CEO of five companies in medical technology, biomaterials and biopharmaceuticals. Avisa Pharma is a New Mexico-based startup created to commercialize breath test technology developed at UNM by Dr. Graham Timmins in the College of Pharmacy.

The following 63 UNM faculty, staff and students received issued U. S. patents within the past year (March 1, 2017 - Feb. 28, 2018). 

For a complete list, visit Inventor Honorees.