Inaugural Penn State Innovation to Impact Awards recipients announced

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State has named the inaugural Innovation to Impact Awards recipients, recognizing faculty, researchers, entrepreneurs and partners whose work exemplifies the University’s commitment to translating research into real-world impact.

Presented by the Office of the Senior Vice President for Research, the awards celebrate achievements in inventorship, commercialization, entrepreneurship and strategic partnerships over the previous year. Honorees were recognized during an awards gala held at the Nittany Lion Inn on March 25.

“We celebrate the inventors and champions of innovation who are advancing knowledge, translating that knowledge into solutions and delivering meaningful benefits to society,” said Penn State President Neeli Bendapudi. “We are very fortunate that innovation is a Penn State tradition, and we view it as a responsibility. Innovation infuses everything we do, what and how we teach, the questions we ask, the methods we use, the problems we tackle. We foster an interdisciplinary innovation ecosystem where bold ideas are nurtured, cutting-edge research is celebrated, and groundbreaking discoveries translate into real world impact.”

The 2025 awards honored research in materials science, mental health, data analytics, biotechnology and more. The individuals and teams demonstrated how Penn State research improves lives, strengthens industry partnerships and drives economic impact, said Andrew Read, Penn State’s senior vice president for research.

“Here at Penn State, we change lives at scale,” Read said. “We are here to recognize innovation, but let’s not forget its impact on student success. There is nothing more exciting for students than to make a real-world difference, and the sort of teaching that you all do, the sort of experiences you expose our students to make a transformational difference to young people's lives.”

The 2025 awardees are:

Innovation of the Year Award: ConidioTec

The Innovation of the Year Award recognizes Penn State inventions that generate significant commercial revenue through licensing and exemplify sustained real-world impact. The 2025 Innovation of the Year Award recognized a fungal-based biopesticide invented in the lab of Nina Jenkins, former senior research associate in the Department of Entomology, that was commercialized via the Penn State spinout ConidioTec led by Jenkins, Don McCandless, who previously worked on the Ben Franklin TechCelerator team and served as CEO of ConidioTec, and Giovani Bellicanta, postdoctoral scholar of entomology and chief operations officer for ConidioTec. The award was in recognition of the technology’s lifetime commercial and environmental impact and the company’s acquisition in 2025.

ConidioTec is a University-wide commercialization success story, growing with support from the Ben Franklin Technology Partners and Penn State’s Office of Technology Transfer. The startup emerged from research conducted in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences and is best known for Aprehend, a fungal-based biopesticide that provides a non-toxic, long-lasting solution for bed bug control. The technology was the first of its kind to receive unconditional approval from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and has been deployed in tens of thousands of treatments across the United States and Canada.

Innovation Trailblazer Award: Nicholas Clark

The Innovation Trailblazer Award honors early‑career faculty and staff whose creativity, inventorship and entrepreneurial drive accelerate the translation of Penn State research to market. The 2025 Innovation Trailblazer Award recognizes Nicholas Clark, assistant research professor in materials science and engineering, for his early-career leadership in the scientific and commercial advancement of LionGlass, a revolutionary, low-carbon glass technology developed at Penn State.

As a postdoctoral scholar and later a faculty member, Clark played a central role in the invention of LionGlass and is coordinating the scale-up and commercialization of the new family of glass that melts at significantly lower temperatures than standard glass, eliminates carbonate raw materials and dramatically reduces carbon emissions associated with glass manufacturing. LionGlass has since secured multiple high-profile industry partnerships aimed at commercial deployment in packaging, architectural glass and automotive applications.

Innovation Rockstars Award: Josh Reynolds, Kevin Mekulu, Scott Leighow and Ankur Verma

The Innovation Rockstars Award highlights Penn State’s growing pipeline of student and postdoctoral entrepreneurs translating academic research into startup ventures by recognizing Penn State–affiliated startup founders who have participated in regional or national NSF I‑Corps programs and have completed, or are actively pursuing, technology licenses with the University.

The 2025 awardees are:

Josh Reynolds, Atlas Biotech: A doctoral graduate of biomedical engineering, Reynolds co‑founded Atlas Biotech to help accelerate cancer drug development by predicting drug resistance earlier in the preclinical pipeline.

Kevin Mekulu, DementiAnalytics: Mekulu, an industrial engineering doctoral candidate, founded DementiAnalytics to commercialize AI‑powered tools designed to improve early screening and monitoring of cognitive impairment and dementia.

Scott Leighow, Red Ace Bio: Leighow, a doctoral graduate of biomedical engineering, co‑founded Red Ace Bio to commercialize selection gene drive technologies — control devices can be used to outcompete harmful genetic strains by replacing them with engineered variants — aimed at overcoming drug resistance in cancer treatment.

Ankur Verma, Lightscline: Verma, a doctoral graduate of industrial engineering, founded Lightscline to develop AI‑based software designed to significantly reduce the amount of data collected by devices such as drones and satellites. The software enables devices to collect 2-10x fewer data points by only collecting the information companies need for decision-making purposes for industries such as aerospace, robotics and remote sensing.

Beecher Loftus Technology Transfer Catalyst Award: Chevron Studio

The Beecher Loftus Technology Transfer Catalyst Award honors external partners whose licensing relationships with Penn State have resulted in outsized success in intellectual property generation, startup formation and long-term collaboration. The 2025 award was presented to Chevron Studio, a partnership between Chevron Technology Ventures and the National Laboratory of the Rockies, in recognition of its ongoing collaboration with Penn State.

Chevron Studio connects entrepreneurs with national laboratories and university partners, supporting the translation of research into high-growth startups. Through this partnership, multiple Penn State technologies are currently being incubated, such as a technology designed for the efficient extraction of lithium for energy storage systems and technology focused on critical mineral recovery, with additional intellectual property advancing through the commercialization pipeline.

Innovation Lion Award: Brett Scofield

The Innovation Lion Award honors administrators and staff who play a pivotal role in facilitating commercialization by forging connections, enabling partnerships and advancing Penn State’s culture of shared innovation.

The 2025 Innovation Lion Award recognizes Brett Scofield, executive director of the Center for Collegiate Mental Health (CCMH) at Penn State, for his role in licensing CCMH’s CCAPS‑34 assessment instrument to Bettermynd.

The CCAPS‑34 is widely regarded as the gold‑standard mental health assessment for college counseling centers. Through the licensing agreement, the tool is being integrated into national tele-mental health platforms, expanding access to evidence‑based assessment and care for college students who might otherwise go untreated.