Innovators Behind the Covid Vaccines & Antivirals, HIV Treatments, and More to Be Honored at the White House, Receive Bayh-Dole Coalition American Innovator Award

WASHINGTON, Sept. 13, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, five of the world's leading innovators – including Katalin Karikó, the University of Pennsylvania biochemist who helped develop the mRNA technology behind the Covid-19 vaccines, and Dennis Liotta, the Emory chemist who helped transform HIV from a death sentence into a manageable illness -- will receive the inaugural Bayh-Dole Coalition American Innovator Award.

They will be honored at the White House while in Washington. 

"We're thrilled to welcome some of America's greatest scientists, researchers, and entrepreneurs to our nation's capital to recognize their brilliant achievements," said Joseph P. Allen, executive director of the Bayh-Dole Coalition.

The award recipients, who were profiled in the Bayh-Dole Coalition's recently released 2023 Faces of American Innovation report, include:

• Dr. Katalin Karikó, a University of Pennsylvania biochemist who helped develop the mRNA technology behind the Pfizer and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines, preventing nearly 20 million deaths.
• Dr. Dennis Liotta, an Emory University professor and chemist whose work on "emtricitabine" helped transform HIV from a death sentence into a manageable illness, saving tens of millions of lives.
• Dr. Carol Mimura, a UC Berkeley technology transfer official who helped commercialize the Nobel-winning research that led to the revolutionary cancer immunotherapy Yervoy.
• Dr. Yan Wang, a Worcester Polytechnic Institute engineering professor who developed a new lithium car battery recycling technique that could end our dependence on gas-powered cars.
• Peter Stern, an entrepreneur who leads a Columbia University spinout that aims to revolutionize LiDAR Technology.

"By bringing groundbreaking discoveries from the lab into the real world, these visionaries improved millions of lives around the globe," said Brian O'Shaughnessy, the Bayh-Dole Coalition's board chair. "None of these stories would have been possible without the 1980 Bayh-Dole Act, one of our nation's most inspired -- and most successful -- pieces of legislation."

To access the Faces of American Innovation report and learn more about the award recipients and their pioneering work, please visit www.bayhdolecoalition.org/FacesOfAmericanInnovation2023. If you'd like to schedule an interview with any of the awardees, please contact Jack Dunn at [email protected].

About the Bayh-Dole Coalition: The Bayh-Dole Coalition is a diverse group of innovation-oriented organizations and individuals committed to celebrating and protecting the Bayh-Dole Act, as well as informing policymakers and the public of its many benefits.

Media Contact
Jack Dunn
[email protected]
202-970-9743 ext. 125

SOURCE Bayh-Dole Coalition