Chancellor’s Innovation Fund
The Chancellor’s Innovation Fund, launched in 2023, offers seed funding to support faculty and their research teams in developing and commercializing new technologies. Each year, five winners are carefully selected to receive a one-time award of $50,000 to invest towards the refinement and prototyping of their lab-based technologies. The fund prioritizes innovation that addresses real-world challenges with the goals of supporting faculty and strengthening East Tennessee’s entrepreneurial network.
Class of 2026
Madhu Dhar
Madhu Dhar is a research professor and director of the Large Animal Regenerative Medicine and Tissue Engineering program in the College of Veterinary Medicine. Dhar and her team, supported by Research Assistant Professor Steven Newby, designed a novel replacement for standard steel and titanium surgical implants that can be used in animals and humans. Using bioink technology, their method can be used to rapidly 3D print implants to repair skin, bone, and nerve injuries. In addition to training graduate students, Dhar leads an FDA-approved clinical trial in horses on the use of equine allogenic mesenchymal stem cells in the treatment of musculoskeletal injuries.
Maged Guerguis
Maged Guerguis, associate professor of design and structural technology and the McCarty Holsaple McCarty Endowed Professor in the College of Architecture and Design, is the inventor of the U-Panel system—a high-performance low-carbon construction approach that integrates biomimetic design with digital manufacturing. Through his OTTO Prefab startup, Guerguis aims to advance scalable solutions to build a completely energy-efficient net zero pilot home by 2027. As director of the Soft Boundaries Lab, he conducts additional research focusing on sustainable architecture, advanced computational design, and robotic fabrication.
Scott Lenaghan
Scott Lenaghan, associate professor of food science in the Herbert College of Agriculture with a joint appointment in biochemistry and cellular and molecular biology in the College of Arts and Sciences, is founder and co-director of the Center for Agricultural Synthetic Biology, a first-of-its-kind center focused on synthetic biology in agriculture. Together with Research Assistant Professor Alex Pfotenhauer, Lenaghan is innovating next-generation pest control technology to protect Tennessee food supplies and bolster global food security. His interdisciplinary work in plant biosensors and biofunctional smart materials has earned several awards and extramural funding.
Cong Trinh
Cong Trinh is a professor of chemical engineering and Ferguson Faculty Fellow in the Tickle College of Engineering. His work is pioneering a fermentation process for manufacturing butyl acetate, a molecule in a high-value ingredient with applications ranging from food flavorings to pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and solvents used in microchip production and automotive coatings. Trinh’s expertise spans several interdisciplinary areas including synthetic biology, biotechnology, and applied AI. His research focuses on developing novel experimental and computational tools to control complex cellular systems for biotechnological applications related to energy, food, health, and environment.
Feng-Yuan Zhang
Feng-Yuan Zhang, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering in the Tickle College of Engineering, is the founding director of NanoHELP, a nanodynamics and high efficiency lab for propulsion and power. His team is developing new electrodes and manufacturing processes to create more efficient and affordable electrochemical devices for energy, chemical production, and environmental applications. Zhang’s work aims to enable innovation in low-cost, high-efficiency scalable electrolysis technologies, which play an important role in converting water and waste into clean alternative fuels. Internationally renowned, he has advanced multiple patent applications and more than 20 invention disclosures.