The Bayh-Dole Coalition released our fourth-annual Faces of American Innovation report. This year's edition highlights the stories of eight trailblazers whose visionary work in bringing early scientific breakthroughs to the marketplace has made a lasting impact around the world, and even beyond. 

You can read the full report here. This year's awardees include:

• Dr. Eric Fossum, vice provost of the Office of Entrepreneurship and Technology Transfer and senior professor at Dartmouth College, and Dr. Sabrina Kemeny, co-founder of tech startup TAP Systems, Inc., who co-invented the "camera-on-a-chip" -- a foundational technology that powers modern digital imaging and video across smartphones, medical devices, automobiles, space exploration, and more.
• Dr. Colleen Scott, chemist and associate professor at Mississippi State University, who discovered a new class of shortwave infrared (SWIR) imaging dyes that have potential to allow surgeons to visualize tumors with greater depth and clarity in real time, advancing precision in cancer surgery. 
• Dr. Randall Bateman and Dr. David Holtzman, neurologists and professors at Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine, who pioneered PrecivityAD® and PrecivityAD2™, the first blood-based diagnostic tests for Alzheimer's disease -- enabling an earlier, more efficient, and more accessible diagnosis option for patients.
• Dr. Carmel Majidi, entrepreneur and engineering professor at Carnegie Mellon University, who created "Thubber" or thermally conductive rubber -- a multifunctional soft, elastic, and conductive material that is transforming thermal management in robotics, electronics, and manufacturing systems.
• Dr. Robert Dannals, professor of radiology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and Dr. Martin Pomper, professor and chair of radiology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, who developed Pylarify®, an FDA-approved imaging agent for prostate cancer that significantly improved detection and is now used in hundreds of thousands of scans each year.

Read the report here!

The 2026 American Innovator Award ceremony will take place on June 3, 2026, in Washington, D.C.