Inside Memphis Business, the sister publication to Memphis, is accepting nominations for our 3rd annual Innovation Awards.
We’re looking to once again celebrate those who have had what publisher Kenneth Neill has called their “eureka moment.”
“Keep in mind what these awards are all about,” Neill wrote for the 2014 Innovation Awards issue. “Much as we all value business acumen and financial success, this celebration is not about entrepreneurship or profitability. The Innovation Awards salute vision and endurance, and most of all, they celebrate real breakthroughs. There’s nothing inevitable about what our winners have done. These are real people solving real problems.”
Last year’s honorees include:
- The Computational Biology team from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, led by Dr. Jinghui Zhang, for sequencing of the complete normal and cancer genomes of 700 children with cancer, and developing computational algorithms that were able to identify genetic structural rearrangements. The team’s findings were released online at no cost to researchers.
- The Maximyze Development team of Buckman for its Maximyze Enzymatic Technology, a more sustainable, green, and energy-efficient way to make stronger and lighter-weight paper and paper products for tissue, magazines, books, cardboard boxes, and wallboard.
- Dr. Maria Gomes-Solecki, assistant professor in the department of microbiology, immunology, and biochemistry at University of Tennessee Health Science Center, for development of an effective oral bait vaccine against Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacteria that causes Lyme disease in humans. She is also co-founder of US Biologic, a company created to commercialize the vaccine.
- Kevin Dean, executive director of Literacy Mid-South, for pulling his organization out of a financial crisis while making reading and learning accessible to all ages of the Memphis community through a nationally adopted curriculum, an app that houses a framework, or roadmap, for teaching literacy, and the creation of the first ever city-wide Book Festival, complete with its own app as well.
We look forward to honoring the class of 2015 in our October/November issue, but we need your help first. Please send your nominations — who they are, what they’ve done, why they should be feted — to richard@insidememphisbusiness.com. Be sure to include any pertinent contact information as well. Thank you for your help, this undertaking, as in all innovation, is truly a team effort.
“Around here, however, we don’t look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things, because we’re curious... and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.” — Walt Disney
