The Research and Innovation Awards will honor the outstanding research achievements and groundbreaking commercialization efforts of Penn State College of Medicine and Penn State Health faculty, staff and students.
All nominees and selected winners will be celebrated during the month of April, culminating with the Research and Innovation Awards ceremony on Tuesday, April 30, 2024.
This year’s event continues the integration of the Research Recognition Awards with the Innovation Awards into one grand celebration honoring outstanding achievements spanning the continuum from discovery to impact taking place in and around our campus.
The event highlights investigators who have distinguished themselves in several areas of research. The culmination of the event is the announcement of the Career Research Excellence Award, honoring an individual who has dedicated their career to enhancing the research mission through education, mentorship and collaborative efforts to further advance science.
Previous research award recipients Previous innovation award recipients
Career Research Excellence
This award recognizes the outstanding achievements of an investigator who has dedicated their career to enhancing the research mission through education, mentorship and collaborative efforts to further advance science.
Outstanding Research Publication
This award recognizes a groundbreaking research publication highlighting originality and impact that has contributed to the advancement of research.
Samuel Hinkle Junior Faculty Research Award
This award recognizes the work of an assistant professor within five years of appointment to Penn State, demonstrating significant growth and impact in one or more subject areas.
Outstanding Collaborative Research Team
This award recognizes the research efforts of a group of investigators that transcend the traditional boundaries of academic disciplines to further the research mission.
Outstanding Research Mentor
This award recognizes outstanding research mentoring. It is intended to be a cumulative award for consistently successful research mentoring that yields publications, funded training or research proposals and career advancement of predoctoral or postdoctoral trainees or junior faculty.
Outstanding Education Researcher
This award recognizes scholarly inquiry and investigation related to education, educational processes, and dissemination and practical application of research results.
Outstanding Community-Engaged Researcher
This award recognizes individuals or teams who effectively invest professional time in communicating their research to the community, engaging the community in the research and/or demonstrating partnership with a community organization in their research.
Outstanding Champion of Diversity in Research
This award recognizes employees who have contributed to the research mission of the College of Medicine by promoting diversity. This may be through recruitment of team members or patients from underrepresented groups; successfully mentoring team members from underrepresented groups; or modifying processes to nurture and capitalize on the positive aspects diversity brings to the research team.
Outstanding Research Staff Member
This award recognizes full-time staff members with primary responsibilities in support of the College of Medicine’s research mission. This includes basic, clinical and translational research support and research administration.
Career Citation Milestone
This award recognizes a career citation milestone of 500 or more citations for a primary article where the recipient was first or last author. Review and guideline articles are excluded.
Innovator of the Year
This award recognizes an individual who exemplifies innovation and entrepreneurship to translational research through a demonstrated track record of developing new technologies, processes or services. Past award recipients come from a variety of departments but are united by their commitment to groundbreaking translational research and innovation.
Investigator to Watch
This award recognizes an individual who demonstrates significant potential in translating groundbreaking research into commercial technologies, processes or services.
Student Award for Excellence in Innovation
This award is presented to an individual who exemplifies innovation and entrepreneurship to research through a demonstrated interest in developing new technologies, processes or services.