{"id":186319,"date":"2022-05-24T08:59:27","date_gmt":"2022-05-24T12:59:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=186319"},"modified":"2022-05-26T10:57:39","modified_gmt":"2022-05-26T14:57:39","slug":"national-science-foundation-director-discusses-innovation-and-entrepreneurship-at-uconn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2022\/05\/national-science-foundation-director-discusses-innovation-and-entrepreneurship-at-uconn\/","title":{"rendered":"National Science Foundation Director Praises Innovation and Entrepreneurship at UConn"},"content":{"rendered":"

National Science Foundation Director Sathuraman Panchanathan met with scientists and entrepreneurs at the University of Connecticut on Monday, May 23, describing UConn as an engine driving discovery and prosperity.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I think of UConn, it should be an acronym for \u2018University of Connectivity\u2019,\u201d Panchanathan, who visited UConn Health and the Innovation Partnership Building at UConn Tech Park, said. \u201cConnectivity from K-12, to research, to industry. This is what we want every university to look like.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Interim
Interim UConn Health CEO Dr. Bruce Liang greets National Science Foundation director Dr. Dr. Sethuraman Panchanathan and Interim UConn President Radenka Maric during a visit to UConn Health’s Cell and Genome Sciences building on May 23, 2022. (Tina Encarnacion\/UConn Health)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He was particularly complimentary of 11 NSF Career Awards given to UConn and UConn Health faculty this year<\/a>. Career Awards are highly competitive grants given to young faculty members with compelling ideas for new lines of research.<\/p>\n

Research funding awards at UConn from all sources doubled over the past 5 years, from $184.5 million in 2017 to $376.6 million in 2021. The NSF provided 21% of that money.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe innovate locally, but our impact is global,” said Interim UConn President Radenka Maric.<\/p>\n

Panchanathan was impressed by the 5,000 UConn alumni employed with Raytheon and Pratt and Whitney, and suggested the companies start an aerospace college in partnership with the University.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are so grateful to the NSF for the investment you have made in Connecticut,\u201d Sen. Chris Murphy said. \u201cAnd we are so excited about a tsunami of manufacturing work coming to Connecticut,\u201d in part thanks to UConn and its technology startup incubators, as well as the partnerships with companies such as Pratt & Whitney and Raytheon.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur partnership with UConn will take us into the future,\u201d said Pratt & Whitney Senior Vice President of Engineering Geoff Hunt. Both Hunt and Raytheon Vice President of Research and Development Andreas Roelofs credited collaborations with UConn for the state\u2019s excellence in complex integrated systems, combustion research, high temperature materials, and advanced manufacturing.<\/p>\n

Company founders from Skyre<\/a>, which focuses on hydrogen energy and recapture, and LambdaVision<\/a>, which grows artificial retinas, both credited UConn\u2019s Technology Incubation Program (TIP) and NSF\u2019s small business research support for getting their companies off the ground.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople can invest their resources wherever they want. When they choose to invest with us, that really says something,” said UConn Board of Trustees Chairman Daniel Toscano.<\/p>\n

State lawmakers, including senators Cathy Osten, Derek Slap, and Tony Hwang, and representatives Kate Farrar and Jaime Foster, attended the event in person or virtually, as well as U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal and U.S. Representatives Joe Courtney and Rosa DeLauro.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re at an inflection point\u201d in the US, and supply chain weaknesses could damage the economy if we do not address them, Courtney said. The talent, innovation and startup businesses generated by UConn\u2019s collaboration with the NSF are part of the solution, the lawmaker said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got important work to do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

‘When I think of UConn, it should be an acronym for University of Connectivity’ <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":186298,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1715,1731,2256,2076,2235,179,2227,2233],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[1899],"class_list":["post-186319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community-impact","category-entrepreneurship","category-innovation","category-research","category-today-homepage","category-uconn-health","category-uconn-edu-homepage","category-university-news"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-09 20:39:03","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/79"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186319"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186319\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":186516,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186319\/revisions\/186516"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/186298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186319"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=186319"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=186319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}