Meet the 2026 University of Utah Innovation Awards Winners

October 7, 2026

From new approaches to cancer and heart failure to advanced materials and manufacturing, this year’s Innovation Award recipients are redefining what’s possible for some of society’s biggest challenges. 

Across the University of Utah, researchers, students, and entrepreneurs are turning discoveries into technologies, companies, and solutions with the potential to improve lives. 

The 2026 University of Utah Innovation Awards recognize some of the people and teams leading that work. 

A Legacy of “First Ascents”

New breakthroughs often start with a question no one has answered yet.

At the University of Utah, that curiosity has led to generations of discovery. From the world’s first permanent artificial heart to foundational advances in computer graphics, U researchers have developed countless ideas and technologies that have changed industries and improved lives.

First Ascents, which debuted at this year’s Innovation Awards, looks at the curiosity, experimentation, and persistence behind that legacy and the researchers continuing that work today.

Meet the 2026 Recipients

Startup of the Year: Fluidx

Fluidx is reimagining how physicians stop bleeding and control blood flow inside the body. The University of Utah spinout is developing next-generation embolic technologies designed to be easier to control, more visible, and more durable during minimally invasive procedures. Now a clinical-stage medical device company, Fluidx is turning years of U research into technology with the potential to give physicians new options for treating tumors, bleeding and other serious conditions.

Founders of the Year: Minna Roh-Johnson and Dan Greiner

What if the body’s own immune cells could be engineered to seek out cancer cells left behind after surgery? Minna Roh-Johnson and Dan Greiner co-founded CaLycia Biosciences to pursue that possibility. Their approach uses engineered macrophages designed to infiltrate and reshape the environment around aggressive solid tumors, including tumors of the brain. By moving a bold scientific idea toward a potential new therapy, the founders are opening another path in the fight against difficult-to-treat cancers.

Lifetime Achievement Award: Zak Fang

 Across decades of research, Zak Fang has helped transform how advanced materials are made, from titanium and energy technologies to powders used in additive manufacturing. Among his most recognized breakthroughs is a process designed to make titanium production cleaner and less expensive—a technology that has helped attract more than $200 million in investment. With more than 60 U.S. patents, two startup companies and a career spent moving discoveries beyond the laboratory, Fang has built a lasting legacy of innovation through both invention and impact.

Innovator of the Year: Ravi Chandran

The machines that operate in the world’s most extreme environments demand materials that can withstand extraordinary heat and stress without adding unnecessary weight. Ravi Chandran is developing a new class of niobium-based alloys designed to do exactly that. His advances in alloy design and manufacturing could enable stronger, lighter components for aerospace, energy and other high-performance applications—pushing materials beyond longstanding limits while creating a clear path from university research to industry use.

Breakthrough of the Year: Robin Shaw

Robin Shaw is taking a fundamentally different approach to heart failure: rather than only helping the heart compensate as it weakens, his research aims to repair defects inside heart muscle cells themselves. That work led to the creation of TikkunLev Therapeutics and a potential new treatment strategy for non-ischemic dilated cardiomyopathy, a severe and progressive form of heart failure. The breakthrough represents a shift toward addressing the cellular roots of disease—and the possibility of changing how heart failure is treated.

Investigator on the Rise: Jessica Swanson

Jessica Swanson is developing a new approach to methane capture using methanotrophic—or methane-eating—microbes. Her bioreactor technology is designed to address methane emissions in industries including dairy, oil and gas, and coal, where the gas can be a persistent operational challenge. By combining scientific development with customer discovery and outside engineering expertise, Swanson is shaping the technology around real-world needs while moving it toward company formation, federal funding, and future patent protection.

Global Impact Award: Jeff Rosenbluth

For people living with spinal cord injuries, recovery extends far beyond a single procedure or hospital stay. Jeff Rosenbluth has built his career around improving that continuum of care, bringing clinicians, researchers, caregivers, and patients together with independence and quality of life at the center. Through his leadership in spinal cord injury rehabilitation at University of Utah Health, Rosenbluth is helping advance a more coordinated, patient-centered approach to rehabilitation and raising expectations for what long-term care can achieve.

Excellence in Innovation Graduate Student Award: Evan Marsh

For patients with chronic sinus disease, identifying the right diagnosis can be a long and frustrating process. Biomedical engineering graduate student Evan Marsh is helping develop a point-of-care diagnostic designed to make that process faster and more objective. Co-designed with a practicing rhinologist, the platform uses a simple nasal sample to help identify a difficult-to-treat form of inflammation. Marsh is also helping other students move ideas toward impact through his leadership with the U’s Bench to Bedside program.

Excellence in Innovation Undergraduate Student Award: Lincoln Wagner

Lincoln Wagner is already turning engineering ideas into potential solutions for the operating room. As an undergraduate working with the Center for Medical Innovation and the Moran Eye Center, Wagner has contributed to peer-reviewed research while independently developing two new approaches to patient positioning during spinal surgery that are being pursued for patent protection. His work demonstrates how students can move beyond learning about innovation to actively creating technologies with the potential to improve patient care.

Graduate Student Startup Award: Lontra Bio

Lontra Bio is looking to nature for new ways to solve problems in health, agriculture, and biotechnology. Led by Rachel Detwiler, the startup is commercializing technologies inspired by antifreeze proteins and mucins—materials with potential applications ranging from protecting products during freezing to enabling new health technologies. By building partnerships across multiple industries and advancing its discoveries toward licensing and commercialization, Lontra Bio is turning fundamental biomaterials research into a platform for real-world innovation.

Undergraduate Student Startup Award: Autona

Biomedical research generates enormous amounts of image and video data—and much of the work required to process it is still done manually. Undergraduate-founded Autona is developing software to automate those time-consuming workflows, helping research teams spend less time on repetitive tasks and more time making discoveries. Founded by Dante Suzuki and Haley Young, the early-stage company is applying software and engineering to a practical challenge experienced across research labs and building a business around making science more efficient.

The Next Ascent

The technologies and discoveries recognized through this year’s Innovation Awards span medicine, engineering, chemistry, advanced materials, software and entrepreneurship. Their paths are different, but each begins with a willingness to ask what might be possible—and to do the work required to find out.

Together, this year’s recipients demonstrate the breadth of innovation happening across the University of Utah and the many ways ideas can move from research and experimentation toward impact.

The next breakthrough may begin with a new material. A new therapy. A student-built company. Or a question no one has answered yet.

The path forward is still being created.

Explore more University of Utah research, entrepreneurship and innovation at innovation.utah.edu.

Media Contact: Chase Austin | chase.austin@utah.edu