Start It Up: Awards Honor Innovators

NC State celebrated its achievements in innovation and entrepreneurship for 2010—including 32 U.S. patents issued and four start-up companies launched—with the inaugural presentation of its Innovator of the Year and Entrepreneur of the Year awards Friday.

Dr. Behnam Pourdeyhimi was named NC State’s Innovator of the Year for 2010. Pourdeyhimi is the William A. Klopman Distinguished Chaired Professor of Materials in the College of Textiles and a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering in the College of Engineering. Currently he serves as the associate dean for industry research and extension in the College of Textiles and is also the executive director of the Nonwovens Institute and the Nonwovens Cooperative Research Center (NCRC).

Pourdeyhimi’s research interests are in nonwovens, responsive fibrous systems, filtration, computational modeling, materials, failure mechanisms, software algorithms, optics and image analysis.

Dr. Thomas Miller received the 2010 Entrepreneur of the Year award. Miller is the McPherson Family Distinguished Professor of Engineering Entrepreneurship. He is an associate dean in the College of Engineering and is vice provost for Distance Education and Learning Technology Applications (DELTA).

Miller is also executive director of the NC State University Entrepreneurship Initiative and a member of the Academy of Outstanding Teachers at NC State. He co-founded and served as president of X Engineering Software Systems Corporation, a developer of first native X-Window spreadsheets.

The NC State Entrepreneur and Innovator of the Year awards were established to recognize those who work to promote the commercialization of university intellectual property, train future leaders, and serve as champions of the university’s culture of innovation and entrepreneurship.