Krishna, Reátegui and Harris earn innovators of the year honors

At the Enterprise for Research, Innovation and Knowledge’s annual Research and Innovation Showcase, held Wednesday, April 16, Sanjay Krishna, professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), was named as The Ohio State University 2025 Innovator of the Year.

In a video overview of Krishna’s work, he said “It’s really humbling to be named Ohio State Innovator of the year. It really captures the sense of what I’m trying to do, he said. “It’s innovation as a professor - to use the science to train the next generation of students and thought leaders and as an entrepreneur - to be able to take that innovation into the marketplace. This is the best job to have.”

four men standing on a platform with awards

The Innovator of the Year award recognizes established Ohio State researchers who are actively working to promote the commercialization of university intellectual property, through invention disclosures filed, patents applied for and/or received, technologies licensed or spin-off companies formed.

“This award is basically the tip of the iceberg. You all see the success but behind the iceberg of success is submerged all the failures, all the mistakes that we had,” Krishna said while accepting the award. “It takes a village to make an innovator, and you will see that is decades of things in the making, and lots of people who have contributed to this and I’m just this recipient of it.” He went on to thank many colleagues and students at the university and his company, through his schooling and his family.

Krishna is the George R. Smith Chair in the College of Engineering, where his lab group is developing next-generation infrared detectors, arrays and imagers. He is also co-founder and chief technical officer of SK Infrared, a startup company focused on defense, aerospace and commercial applications of infrared imaging.

During the event two additional innovators were announced to recognize innovators in different stages of their careers. Eduardo Reátegui, was named Early Career Innovator of the Year and Ian Harris was named Next Generation Innovator of the Year.

Meet the Innovators of the Year

Sanjay Krishna

Eduardo Reátegui

Ian Harris

Reátegui is associate professor and innovation scholar in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering in the College of Engineering and a member of the Molecular Biology and Cancer Genetics Program in the Comprehensive Cancer Center.

“This is a deep honor for me and particularly for the past and current members of my lab,” he shared. “They are the driving force behind all these different innovations in terms intellectual property that we develop in my lab.”

Reátegui’s research integrates micro-technologies, biomaterials and molecular imaging strategies for high-throughput sorting and molecular profiling of circulating disease biomarkers. He is also known for developing infection/inflammation on-a-chip devices for the biophysical and molecular characterization of immune cell interactions with pathogens. The long-term goal of his lab is to develop clinically relevant devices that provide complementary data to diagnose and treat cancer and infectious diseases more effectively.  

Harris is a senior working toward degrees in Aerospace Engineering, Astrophysics and Astronomy and Physics and two minors in Nuclear Engineering and Mathematics. He will begin his doctorate work this fall in Nuclear Engineering at Ohio State.

“It's been a very exciting journey, working on this technology, building it out, and especially working on the company side with my brother,” Harris said. “And with research and development, it is easy to forget that you're not in it alone. You always have that group of people to help build you up and support you through the tough times and that's why I just want to say thank you.”

Harris is the chief technology officer and co-founder of SPAERO Systems, a startup company he founded with his brother Nikolas. The space venture is working to create sustainable technologies for use in space and on the ground. The first product is derived from his undergraduate research with plasma for microbial sanitation. The venture placed first in the BOSS Space Ventures competition and went on to earn $50,000 in funding through the President’s Buckeye Accelerator program through the Keenan Center for Enterpreneurship. Harris has also served as a student assistant at the Starlab Ground Location at Ohio State.

Peter J. Mohler, executive vice president for research, innovation and knowledge, also shared highlights of the year in research and innovation at the event.

“What a year it has been with impactful research and exciting commercialization advancements. And since we are in the heart of the innovation district let’s start here,” he said, reviewing upcoming developments in the district, including naming Tishman Speyer as lead for the next phase of development as well as a new building,which is currently under design, the Timashev Innovation Center.

Another highlight Mohler noted is a new oral drug, discovered and developed at Ohio State with support from the National Institutes of Health. The drug targets cancer by stopping a key enzyme involved in the cellular process that enables cancer to grow and spread. Working with partners across campus, Jabez Biosciences licensed the drug last year.

“And just earlier this month they announced that the first patient has been successfully dosed in its Phase 1 clinical study right here at Ohio State,” added Mohler. “This represents the first human testing of a drug discovered and developed at Ohio State.”

The event also featured spotlight talks, which featured researchers and innovators telling their own stories of discovery at the university. Featured speakers included:

Ezekiel Johnston-Halperin, The Quantum Revolution at Ohio State

Vihaan Vulpala and Trevor Gerald, Transforming the Classroom Experience with Gen AI Case Study Generation

Kristin Stanford, What's the Skinny on Fat?

Johnston-Halperin concluded his talk by highlighting the importance of research universities. “I really want to emphasize the critical role of the academic research enterprise here. It’s the academic environment that allows us to take big swings,” he said. “A research university like Ohio State is the only place in the world with the disciplinary breadth to be able to realize multiple breakthroughs in different areas, bring them together and apply them together to a new technology to generate the impact to affect our economies and our society.”