Over the course of a year, fellows collaborate with an external mentor and pursue an ambitious scholarly project aimed at advancing their research to the next level. This year’s class includes:

• Dereck Barr-Pulliam, , focusing on how individuals solve complex problems in auditing and accounting contexts.
• Chris Brody, , analyzing musical form in tonal and Baroque music, using corpus-based methods to study structure and style.
• Marci DeCaro, , exploring the cognitive processes underlying learning and performance, emphasizing how insights from cognitive science can improve educational instruction.
• Minjie Huang, , studying executive compensation, corporate culture, investments and behavioral finance.
• Heehyul Moon, , researching health disparities, dementia caregiving and service utilization among racially and culturally marginalized older adults.Ìę
• John Ritz, , using electroacoustic music and interactive computer systems to create innovative chamber and experimental works that integrate live performance with technology.
• Caroline Sheffield, , working on multimodal literacy in social studies education, the integration of technology in classroom instruction and site-based teacher education.
• Susan Tanner, , studying the intersection of artificial intelligence, linguistics and law.
• Hui Wang, , focusing on energy storage materials and solid-state battery technologies.
• Alex Widdowson, , studying the development of crime over the life course, the long-term consequences of criminal behavior and justice system involvement, and prisoner reentry.

To be considered for the program, faculty must be associate professor rank, nominated by their unit and show a “consistent record of scholarship with the passion and desire to achieve greater national recognition.”

Klein, who has served in the role as an interim since January 2024, will officially take the position on Feb. 13.

In his new leadership role, Klein will oversee the university’s research enterprise, including research development and administration, industry engagement, innovation, entrepreneurship and the translation of university discoveries to commercialization and societal impact.

“Dr. Klein has a wealth of experience at UofL and clearly understands our research mission and its importance as one of only 146 R-1 universities in the nation that are leaders in innovation and discovery,” said UofL President Kim Schatzel. “He will extend and strengthen the university’s reputation for world-class research, scholarship and creative work.”

Klein is a professor of medicine who joined UofL in 1985 and holds the university’s James Graham Brown Foundation Endowed Chair in Proteomics—the first such chair in America dedicated to the rapidly expanding field. He is the founding director of UofL’s Core Proteomics Laboratory and Clinical Proteomics Program. His research group was part of an international team that discovered the first blood test able to diagnose a specific kidney disease. He practiced nephrology care for patients with kidney disease for 39 years.

In 2013, Klein was appointed vice dean for research at the UofL School of Medicine.

He earned his M.D. at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston and completed his residency in internal medicine at the University of Kansas Medical Center. He completed a fellowship in nephrology and earned his Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology from UofL.

“I’m honored and excited to lead the Office of Research and Innovation team and to help UofL faculty and staff continue to perform their outstanding scholarly work,” Klein said.

, offered through the as part of the Mid-South NSF I-Corps Hub, is an intensive course focused on , which helps innovators and entrepreneurs test their ideas or products in the real world and see if they have what it takes to stick. The regular eight-week program is hybrid and offered in spring and fall, while the new three-session ‘short course’ is offered virtually and in summer.Ìę

“Entrepreneurs and innovators are nimble — they need to move fast to get their ideas from mind to market,” said Jessica Sharon, UofL senior director of innovation and new ventures. “With this new, shorter program, we’re able to offer training and coaching through a more flexible format that helps them move quickly and fits into busy schedules.”Ìę

LaunchIt’s curriculum, taught by experienced and successful entrepreneurs from both the Office of Research and Innovation and UofL College of Business, includes coaching, mentoring and lessons on customer discovery, product validation and other considerations when preparing for market launch. The program is open to anyone in the region working to develop a technology-focused product or company.

UofL piloted the short course in summer 2024. A total of 13 teams participated, including 11 from UofL and one each from Northern Kentucky University and University of Kentucky. Connor Centner, a post-doctoral researcher in the UofL J.B. Speed School of Engineering, used the course to help further a cutting-edge therapeutic ultrasound technology meant to destroy cancer cells and unlock the body’s immune system to fight tumors.

“The LaunchIt Short Course was an incredibly unique experience—it gave me the opportunity to dive into customer discovery and product-market fit with guidance from experienced entrepreneurs who’ve been through it all,” Centner said. “It wasn’t just about learning the basics; it was about gaining real-world experience that offered valuable insight into the market and helped me truly understand customer needs to determine how my idea or product could succeed.”

From the short course, some teams may choose to go on to the more comprehensive eight-week course offered twice a year, or some may choose to focus on additional customer discovery. All participating teams are eligible for microgrants to support customer discovery once they graduate the short course or the full course.

LaunchIt course director, Jamie Rush, said everyone can benefit from entrepreneurial training. With this new short course, the team hopes to expand access to people who may not be able to attend otherwise. For example, the short course is now offered to UofL students in a partnership with the new Bluegrass Biodesign program, where multi-disciplinary teams work to develop innovations that save and improve lives.Ìę

“Whether or not you plan to launch a startup, you’re an entrepreneur and can use LaunchIt tools like customer discovery and market research to focus your research or idea and make it impactful,” Rush said. “We want to equip everyone — students, faculty, staff, entrepreneurs, corporate business leaders — with tools that help them advance not only important new products, but new community projects, business initiatives and more.”Ìę

The next full session of LaunchIt, beginning in spring 2025, is now enrolling through Jan. 24, 2025. More information and registration is available at . The next short course will be offered in summer 2025.Ìę

The program is a nine-month training course where students gain hands-on experience creating and testing their ideas in the real world. The curriculum includes opportunities to prototype new designs while participating in workshops and lectures led by faculty at the UofL School of Medicine, College of Business and J.B. Speed School of Engineering.Ìę

“This is about training the next generation of innovators in health care and medicine,” said In Kim, a professor of pediatric medicine and program lead. “With Bluegrass Biodesign, we hope to equip UofL students with the tools they need to launch technologies that can save lives.”Ìę

Students complete the program in multidisciplinary teams, each blending undergraduate and graduate students in medicine and engineering. The idea is that they each bring insights from their own area of expertise that could help them solve problems and innovate.

“What we find is that innovation is a team sport,” said Beth Spurlin, an associate professor and co-director of the program. “The best solutions come from different people with different perspectives working together. With Bluegrass Biodesign, we give students the opportunity to experience that before they even leave campus.”

Eight teams — a total of 58 students —participated in the 2024-2025 cohort.ÌęLogan Davis, an M.D./MBA student, said the experience taught him just how much work goes into developing the innovations his patients will one day rely on. His team worked on a device to help patients who struggle with both urinary control and motor tremor and/or dexterity. The solution for the former is to self-catheterize, which can be difficult without full control of your hands or arms.Ìę

“We wanted to target this set of problems to give back some comfort and autonomy to these patients,” said Davis, who also was co-president for the 2023-2024 cohort. “This is a process I am so thankful to have been a part of, and I plan on using the biodesign process Bluegrass BioDesign is based on for the rest of my career to design/improve care for all of my patients.”

The student teams also complete business training via , the office’s accelerated entrepreneurial bootcamp that is part of UofL’s National Science Foundation program, housed in the . In the 2024 cycle, all eight teams received $3,000 in funding, along with mentorship and training, via the I-Corps program.

“We are thrilled to formalize the collaboration between Bluegrass Biodesign and UofL’s I-Corps program,” said Jessica Sharon, senior director of innovation programs and new ventures, who leads I-Corps and LaunchIt. “We are proud of these students’ hard work in the program to identify and validate market needs they are working to solve!”

Applications for the next cycle of Bluegrass Biodesign will be open for submission at the beginning of the spring 2025 semester. Learn more and apply .

This year’s officers, as submitted by the Governance, Trusteeship and Nominating Committee, are Diane Medley (chair), Larry Benz (vice chair), Brian Lavin (treasurer), Sherrill Zimmerman (secretary) and Diane Porter (at-large member).

Allie Rose Phillips, president of the , was sworn in as the new student constituency representative. Faculty Senate Chair Eugene Mueller continues his role as faculty constituency representative; and Staff Senate Chair Kevin Ledford continues as staff constituency representative.

Schatzel shared a which highlights the many achievements that the university realized over the past year. Following the presentation, she acknowledged the ongoing commitment to the university’s success demonstrated by the senior leadership team, faculty, staff and students.

Trustees attributed the university’s ongoing success to Schatzel’s outstanding leadership and commitment to bring UofL to the next level. Their remarks were part of Schatzel’s annual performance evaluation, conducted by trustees and representatives from the university community. Medley noted Schatzel’s efforts to build a strong senior leadership team, establish a solid working relationship with Kentucky state legislators and commit to many worthwhile and ambitious goals for the university.

The trustees approved the university’s in June. One of the drivers for that budget is the university’s strong philanthropy efforts. Keith Sherman, executive director and chief operating officer, reported that UofL’s main endowment pool stands at $914 million with investment returns at just over 11%. Additionally, FY 2023-24 fundraising was about $47 million.

continues to thrive as a premier health system in Kentucky. ULH CEO Tom Miller noted several recent achievements including the much anticipated opening of UofL Health – South Hospital in Bullitt County, Ky., this past March. Some of ULH’s strategies for 2025 include the expansion of the mental health services program across the commonwealth, buildout of the and seeking National Cancer Institute designation for the .

Jon Klein, UofL’s interim executive vice president for research and innovation, shared exciting news about a $24 million investment in clinical research infrastructure – the largest such investment in the university’s history. Funding, $12 million of which comes from the National Institutes of Health, will support the development of a clinical and translational research program at the university. A formal announcement will be made to the university community in the coming weeks. Watch UofL News for more information.

The University of Louisville Board of Trustees committees will meet Thursday, Sept. 19, at 1 p.m., in Grawemeyer Hall. Meeting agendas, minutes and other information is available on the .

Through the Ascending Star Fellowship program, the partners with academic units to accelerate scholarship and promote the national reputation of exceptional mid-career researchers. During the year long program, the fellows work with an external mentor and are coached through an ambitious project that moves their scholarship to the next level of development.ÌęÌę

This year’s class — representing four schools — includes:

• Faisal Aqlan, , whose work focuses on automation, process improvement, engineering education, and sensor-based virtual reality for manufacturing and healthcare applications.Ìę
• Daniel Bennett, whose work focuses on how environmental change influences entrepreneurship and innovation, and the implications for regional and national economic development.
• Melanie Gast, , whose work focuses on race, class, and gender in higher education.
• Omid Ghasemi Fare, J.B. Speed School of Engineering, whose work focuses on geothermal energy, thermo-hydro-mechanical modeling and characterization of soils, unsaturated soil, heat and mass transport in porous media, transportation geotechnics and geotechnical earthquake engineering.Ìę
• Meg Hancock, , whose work focuses on gender and diversity in sport organizations, career development in sport and sport and social change.Ìę
• Elizabeth Munnich, College of Business, whose work focuses on developing and evaluating strategies for improving health and reducing healthcare spending by more efficiently and effectively utilizing healthcare resources.
• Noppadon Sathitsuksanoh, J.B. Speed School of Engineering, whose work focuses on converting carbon feedstocks from plant biomass, waste plastics and carbon dioxide into advanced fuels, biomaterials and battery components.
• Siobhan Smith-Jones, College of Arts and Sciences, whose work focuses on exploring African American women as interpretive communities and, through the fellowship program, on Black horror television.
• Ian Stansel, College of Arts and Sciences, director of UofL’s Creative Writing Program and fiction/non-fiction writer.Ìę

“I’m ecstatic to work with this year’s cohort and help further their already stellar careers and scholarship,” said M. Cynthia Logsdon,Ìęassociate vice president for research and innovation, who leads the fellowship program. “They’re already ‘stars,’ of course, but our goal is to help them shine even brighter.”Ìę

To be considered for the program, faculty must be associate professor rank, must be nominated by their unit and must show a “consistent record of scholarship with the passion and desire to achieve greater national recognition.”Ìę

The new funding, a gift from the Jewish Heritage Fund (JHF), will go to support and strengthen UofL’sÌęcore research facilities — shared labs that provide researchers with access to advanced equipment, specialized scientific techniques and skilled personnel that can help accelerate discovery and innovation. Across UofL, researchers are using core facilities to develop everything from new diagnostics and treatments to advanced manufacturing of novel materials and devices.Ìę

“UofL is a hub for cutting-edge research, and these labs are the backbone of that work,” said Kim Schatzel, UofL’s president. “We are very grateful for JHF’s continued partnership and most recent gift, which will help grow these critical facilities and empower researchers to push the boundaries of knowledge and deliver high-impact results that benefit everyone.”

This gift marks a total of more than $40 million in combined funding and in-kind donations by JHF to UofL in a decade-long partnership focused on advancing health. At UofL, JHF’s investments have resulted in new medical breakthroughs, direct support for 52 researchers thus far and more than $165 million in new external research funding.

“We are proud to partner with UofL and leverage its biomedical expertise and strength as a Research-1 institution,” said Jeff Polson, JHF’s president and CEO. “Together, we have advanced adolescent health, funded groundbreaking research, and supported community partners to overcome obstacles and strive for new heights.”

Jon Klein, UofL’s interim executive vice president for research and innovation, said collaboration with community organizations is critical to UofL’s groundbreaking research. UofL is one of just 84 universities in the country to receive both the Research-1 and Community Engaged designations from the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher łÉÈËֱȄ. The latter recognizes institutions that work with community partners to exchange knowledge and resources for public benefit.

“UofL is a premier, community engaged research institution, and this partnership is an excellent example of what that means,” Klein said. “Great community partners like JHF are vital to UofL’s work to create and apply knowledge that improves lives.”

LaunchIt, offered twice per year through the , is an intensive eight-week hybrid course focused on , which helps innovators and entrepreneurs test their ideas or products in the real world and see if they have what it takes to stick.

The program, taught by experienced and successful entrepreneurs, includes coaching, mentoring and curriculum including lessons on customer discovery, product validation and other considerations when preparing for market launch. The program is open to anyone in the region working to develop a technology-focused product or company.

Leads for the fourteen teams in the fall 2023 session were:

• Tom Alaimo: LifeStory Connection, software that personalizes the quality of care to their life and experiences, creating a person-centered approach to healthcare.
• Faisal Aqlan (J.B. Speed School of Engineering): A UofL data-driven interactive virtual reality clinic (IVRC) that enhances cognitive function provides an accurate assessment of dementia level to providers.
• Shavonne Bass: Loc’n Key, offering community driven products focused on sustainable, eco-friendly organic hair care products specifically designed for customers with locs.
• Zachary Fowler (J.B. Speed School of Engineering): A device for wearable continuous monitoring insulin biosensor to help physicians identify patients who are at risk for metabolic disease and Type II diabetes.
• Kelly Gibson and Jason Crist: Crison, an electrical infrastructure app for seamless integration of asset information and test result trending.
• Seokyoung Han (J.B. Speed School of Engineering): A smart device for interpreting dog behaviors combines imaging of the animal’s expressions with biometric data to relay accurate status to the owner.
• Arpan Jain: Jain Energy Co., a biofuel cell that promotes a neutral-carbon-based circular economy and reduces dependency on fossil fuels for electricity generation.
• Young Hoon Kim (J.B. Speed School of Engineering): Building construction materials that consume zero-water used in drought regions.
• Hallie Osborne (J.B. Speed School of Engineering): A device used for improved visualization when removing fluid from around the heart in emergent cardiovascular cases.
• Sumit Paul (J.B. Speed School of Engineering): A novel mechanical interlocking metamaterial that strengthens biomedical implants and increases durability after implantation.
• Farshid Ramezanipour (College of Arts and Sciences): A novel compound that efficiently generates hydrogen from water to provide a cheaper, environmentally friendly energy source.
• Nicolas Tehrani: Lode, a company creating full-flavor fermented non-alcoholic beverages for beer enthusiasts.
• Elton Thomas: Project Story łÉÈËֱȄ, a company using cutting edge biometric technologies to design and provide education, fitness and security solutions.
• Imelda Wright (School of Nursing): An assessment tool used in several high-risk industries by identifying weaknesses in their safety systems.

LaunchIt is offered by the team as part of its National Science Foundation program. All teams in this cohort received training, funding and other support from I-Corps to drive their innovation-backed technologies to market.

“LaunchIt was a window into the world of entrepreneurship,” said Ramezanipour, a UofL faculty member who participated as part of the I-Corps program. “It was a great experience and very helpful in understanding how to take your innovation to the next stage.”

UofL New Ventures works to launch and grow startups, and is supported in part by Amplify Louisville. LaunchIt coaches include the office’s Entrepreneurs in Residence, knowledgeable founders with an in-depth understanding of launching and growing a business.Ìę

The next session of LaunchIt, beginning in spring 2024, is now enrolling. More information and registration is available at .

The startup, Immersive Hearing Technologies, is built on UofL research that uses VR to help patients test different models and program their hearing aids, all without leaving the comfort of the clinical setting.Ìę

As one of just selected for this year’s Vogt class by the Community Foundation of Louisville, the Immersive team — co-founders Jeff Cummins and UofL researcher, Matthew Neal — received $25,000 in non-dilutive grant funding, participation in a 10-week startup accelerator program, coaching, mentorship, strategic introductions and recognition designed to boost the growth of their business.

Cummins, a seasoned founder who previously served as an entrepreneur-in-residence in the , said he was attracted to the technology and ultimately came on-board to launch the startup because it tackles a problem he himself has faced.Ìę

“I wear hearing aids and I know the challenges faced by individuals with hearing difficulty,” he said. “The technology has an opportunity to be a platform that revolutionizes how hearing aids are provided by allowing patients/users to listen to the hearing aids before they purchase them.”

According to the National Institutes of Health, one in eight Americans over the age of 12 have some degree of hearing loss and about 28.8 million adults could benefit from using hearing aids.

With this tool, audiologists could use a VR headset, tablet computer or a wide screen display to demonstrate how specific hearing aid models and settings would perform in different, realistic environments, such as a school, noisy restaurant, grocery store or church. Neal and his research collaborators developed the technology to help patients find the right fit.

“We want to help people choose the hearing aid and get it programmed specifically for the specific environments where they have trouble,” said Neal, of the UofL School of Medicine. “With virtual reality technologies, you can do that without leaving your audiologist’s office.”

Neal and collaborators have worked closely with the UofL Office of Research and Innovation and its and teams, who help translate research into products and commercialize them by partnering with industry or launching new companies. The office provided support for intellectual property and product development, entrepreneurial training and coaching, and a connection to Cummins.Ìę

As part of that support, the team participated in several of UofL’s innovation and new venture programs, including both the UofL site and prestigious nationalÌę programs for technology-backed startups. They also participated in the Pandemic-Related Product Acceleration & Responsive Entrepreneurship Program, orÌę, which partners UofL researchers with companies and members of the community to scale up innovative ideas addressing health, economic and societal issues caused by pandemics.Ìę

The team also completedÌę, UofL’s eight-week product innovation bootcamp, and received coaching from multiple UofL entrepreneurs-in-residence.ÌęThe entrepreneur-in-residence program is a partnership with , an organization working to grow Louisville’s entrepreneurship ecosystem, with funding from the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development.

“The support of these programs and the Office of Research and Innovation team was invaluable in developing the technology to this point,” Neal said. “We look forward to continuing to work with the team to further develop, and ultimately launch, this product that could really improve the lives of those with hearing difficulty.”Ìę

The Mid-South , backed by a four-year grant from the National Institutes of Health, spans a four-state network of Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee and Virginia. The hub is led by Vanderbilt University, with UofL leading efforts in Kentucky to transform academic discoveries into real-world products that advance human health and catalyze a medical innovation economy.Ìę

“UofL is a top-tier, Carnegie Research-1 university, and we are proud of our strong track record as a driver of health innovation and entrepreneurship,” said Kevin Gardner, executive vice president for . “We are excited to expand that work with the Mid-South Hub, joining our partner institutions to accelerate technologies and companies that can save and improve lives, creating opportunity here and throughout our region.”

NIH’s REACH program focuses on bringing basic science discoveries to market by providing entrepreneurial training for innovators on how to bring technologies to market; feedback from federal and industry experts; funding to support early-stage product definition studies; and project management support

UofL’s role in the new hub follows years of state leadership, since launching Kentucky’s first REACH program in 2015. The REACH efforts began at UofL and expanded statewide in 2019 through collaboration with KY Innovation, University of Kentucky and Kentucky Commercialization Ventures. Over nearly a decade, Kentucky REACH programs have coached more than 400 innovative faculty, staff and students across Kentucky public institutions and funded 45 technologies, leading to 18 new products and 11 patents filed.

“UofL has provided consistent leadership in driving these innovations from lab to market across the Commonwealth,” said Jessica Sharon, director of innovation programs and lead for the UofL Hub program. “Through this new Hub, we are very excited to work with our regional partner universities to train more innovator teams, helping them learn the product development process and lens.”

REACH is part of UofL’s unique suite of prestigious, grant-backed programs aimed at supporting the translation of research into viable commercial products. UofL is one of only a handful of universities in the country to host each of these innovation-associated programs — and it’s the only one to receiveÌęallÌęof them.

With the new Mid-South REACH Hub, UofL will expand on this programming by leveraging already strong partnerships with regional institutions. Last year, UofL partnered with Vanderbilt on a $15 million effort backed by the National Science Foundation to launch a new regional hub aimed at accelerating product innovation, entrepreneurship and economic development. The resulting NSF Mid-SouthÌęInnovation CorpsÌę(I-Corps) Hub, one of only 10 across the U.S., is part of the operational backbone of the NSF’s , which helps translate academic research for the marketplace while expanding access and inclusion.Ìę

“Diverse perspectives are essential to turn university ideas into lifesaving tools in the hands of doctors,” said Vanderbilt lead, Robert Webster. “So many students and faculty share this vision—to their very core—but lack the business, legal and practical insights they need to get started
ÌęWe know what it feels like and what it takes, and we can’t wait to help others unlock the potential of their ideas–and themselves–as innovators and entrepreneurs.”Ìę

NIH will contribute $4 million toward the Hub over four years, with more than $8 million in additional matching funds from partnering universities, state economic development entities and public-private partnerships.ÌęKentucky matching funds are supported by the state Cabinet for Economic Development’s KY Innovation, UofL and UK. In addition to Vanderbilt and UofL, the other partner institutions are, Jackson State University, George Mason University and UK.