Invention of the Year Reception

Invention of the Year Reception 2010

Each year, OTC hosts the Invention of the Year Reception to honor inventors and inventions from the previous year. This year's reception awarded prizes to Multi-Pitch Tracking in Adverse Environments by Srikanth Vishnubhotla and Carol Espy-Wilson; Genetic Markers for Improved Lyme Disease Diagnostics by Utpal Pal and Adam Coleman; and Nano Arrays for Energy Storage by Gary Rubloff, Sang Bok Lee, Israel Perez, Laurent Lecordier, and Parag Banerjee. Pictures from the reception can be found below.

Past winners of Invention of the Year Awards include Enzyme Systems for Saccharification of Plant Cell Wall Polysaccharides by a Marine Bacterium to Release Fermentable Sugars, later developed into University start-up Zymetis, Inc. by inventors Steven Hutcheson and Ronald Weiner; and 2008 Life science winner “Nano-Velcro”: A New Biomaterial for Improved Hemorrhage Control, currently being developed into a biodegradable sponge and spray-on bandage by start-up Remedium Technologies.

Read the Press Release on the UM Newsdesk

The Winners
Carol Espy-Wilson, invention of the year winner in Information Science; Mel Bernstein, Vice President for Research at the University of Maryland; Srikanth Vishnubhotla, winner; and Gayatri Varma, Executive Director of the Office of Technology Commercialization
Adam Coleman, invention of the year winner in the category of Life science; Bernstein; Inventor Siba Samal, accepting the award on behalf of inventor Utpal Pal; Varma
Winners of the invention of the year in the category of Physical science: Parag Banerjee, Laurent Lecordier, and Gary Rubloff; Bernstein; Varma
The Reception
Physical Science finalists Hyungdae Bae and Miao Yu; OTC licensing associate George Letscher a	Inventor and past winner Jonathan Dinman; Robert MacWright; Varma, OTC intellectual property associate Felicia Metz
Samal; Varma; TEDCO program manager Linda Saffer a	USM Chancellor Brit Kirwan; Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship Director Asher Epstein
OTC staff members Judy Guzewich, Ann DeLorenzo, and Varma; Sughrue Mion sponsors Chetan Bansal and Jay Lyte	Varma; Associate VP for Research and Economic Development Brian Darmody; Kirwan a
Rubloff, Kirwan a	Kirwan, Varma, and Coleman discuss a novel method for Lyme disease detection
Cheng-i Wei, Dean for the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources; Kirwan	Associate Director of MIPS, Joe Naft; finalist in the category of Life science Lawrence Sita
Inventor Hiroko Kato Beaudoing; Bae a a a	Professor Emeritus Timothy Ng; Associate Director for Research Anne Geronimo; Assistant Dean for Behavioral and Social Sciences Ann Holmes; Associate Director of ORAA Antoinette Lawson
Metz; Tom Sova and Frank Bryan, associates from sponsoring law firm Rosenberg, Klein & Lee	Inventor Michael DeMaio; Finalist in the category of Physical science Raymond Sedwick
Vushnubhotla; Finalists in the category of Information science Hanan Samet, Pavan Turaga, and Jagan Sankaranarayanan	Lecordier watches a slide show of the finalist inventions a
Life science finalist John Fourkas; Rubloff; Associate VP for Research Development Ken Gertz	Will Schrott; Sponsor Jeff Auerbach; Metz a
Dinman; Associate VP for Research Mary Ann Ottinger; Varma	Life science finalist Linjie Li; Inventor Michael Stocker; Life science finalists Sanghee Nah and Jia Wei

Thank you, inventors of 2009!
Photographs courtesy of Mike Morgan, Mike Morgan Photography

The Winners

The Reception

Thank you, inventors of 2009!