5 NJIT Innovators Are Recognized by New Jersey Business Magazine

Innovation is at the heart of New Jersey Institute of Technology, be it in research, the delivery of education or the specialized, high-tech machinery inside the university's labs and Makerspace. In fact, NJIT aims to be a nexus of innovation under its new strategic plan.

As such, it's fitting that five Highlanders are being recognized by New Jersey Business Magazine in its first Innovate100 list, which includes accomplished leaders in business, nonprofits, government and academia.

NJIT is represented by President Teik C. Lim, Senior Vice Provost for Research Atam Dhawan, Associate Professor Vivek Kumar, New Jersey Innovation Institute President Michael Johnson and Sam Gatley, director of operations at NJII's COMET center.

Lim, under the new strategic plan, NJIT Makes an Innovation Nexus, looks to accelerate NJIT's progress as a public polytechnic in research, experiential learning, curricular growth, diversity and its connections to its home city of Newark.

Dhawan oversees research efforts across NJIT's colleges and led the development of a new Center for Translational Research, which aims to expedite the application of research discoveries to real-world needs.

Similarly, NJII, the corporation that Johnson leads, serves as a conduit between NJIT and the business world in sectors such as health care, entrepreneurship, defense and professional and corporate development. For example, COMET, the center that Gatley runs, advances research and development in the defense industry.

Kumar, a biomedical engineer, leads a multi-university team that's developing a hydrogel therapy that acts as a first line of defense against viruses and other biological threats. His groundbreaking research project is among many at NJIT, including one that establishes a brain pathway linking motivation, addiction and disease, another that detects forever chemicals in under three minutes and yet another that creates tiny biological robots from human cells.

The NJIT honorees will be feted at a ceremony in New Brunswick this month. For more on Innovate100, please go here.