An estimated 231 awardees, faculty, university leaders and their guests, a record number, turned out for UNeMed’s 20th Innovation Awards banquet in October. The awards are the primary event in UNeMed’s annual Innovation Week celebration, honoring all inventors at UNMC and the University of Nebraska at Omaha who submitted a new invention, received a U. S. patent, or had a technology licensed during the previous fiscal year.
Several special awards were also presented, including a Lifetime Impact Award gift to the UNMC College of Pharmacy’s recently retired Jonathan Vennerstrom, PhD – a stick-and-ball model of the chemical compound he created, arterolane. That compound became a critical component in an antimalarial drug called Synriam, which treated millions in India and Africa.
“This is why we do what we do,” UNeMed president and CEO Michael Dixon, PhD, said as he introduced Dr. Vennerstrom. “Discoveries made here can change lives in places most of us will never visit, for people who will never know the name of the scientist who helped them.
“Your time at the lab bench may be over, but your impact is not,” Dr. Dixon said. “Thank you for your vision, your persistence, and the lives your work continues to protect.”
See a photo album from the event.
Additional awardees included:
Josh Havens, PharmD, who secured the Most Promising New Invention Award. An associate professor in the UNMC College of Pharmacy, Dr. Havens developed the “Long-Acting Injectable Compass.” It is a suite of software tools that show promise in helping better manage the complex processes of treating HIV patients with long-acting injectables.
UNO’s director of information science and technology research initiatives at UNO’s National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology and Education Center, Joel Elson, PhD, who was named the 2026 Emerging Inventor. In just five years Dr. Elson has submitted 18 new inventions to UNeMed and secured a U.S. patent for his flagship invention, the “Chatbot for Reporting and Investigating Threat.” That innovation spun out a new startup company called Vigiliti, which plans to put the innovation into practical use in helping identify and prevent potential threats.
“I’m just the face of a greater team,” Dr. Elson said. “My job is relatively simple. Help these teams solve problems. And a lot of credit should go to students. There were students involved in all these inventions and all these patents. I’m just lucky to be a part of it.”
His work has been featured in local and national news reports, and he and his team have advised members of congress about the potential threat AI poses.
“The threats are real, and they’re evolving as fast as the technology,” Dr. Dixon said. “But some of the people working hardest on them are right here at UNO.”
Elizabeth Beam, PhD, director of global health and nursing professor at UNMC, who received the Faculty Entrepreneur Award.
Dr. Beam was UNeMed’s inaugural winner of the “Back-o-the-Napkin Contest” with an idea for better protective gear for front-line healthcare workers providing for infectious disease patients. That idea eventually became the “Beam Helmet” and the cornerstone technology for the startup company, Red Sentrix.
“Beth turned a problem into an idea, the idea into a prototype, and the prototype into a company,” Dr. Dixon said. “That is what a true faculty entrepreneur looks like: Someone who solves a problem she has lived, then shows others how to do it too.”
Corey Hopkins, PhD, chair of the UNMC Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, who received the Startup of the Year award for his contribution to a new venture called Goldenrod Therapeutics. Dr. Hopkins, who also is director of the Center for Drug Design and Innovation, developed a potent compound apparently capable of reducing or limiting several types of neuroinflammation. The compound, PDE4, was UNeMed’s Most Promising New Invention in 2019, and has been developed into Goldenrod’s lead compound, “11h.”
“It’s been a long process,” Dr. Hopkins said. “Drug discovery takes many, many years. It takes a huge team of phenomenal students and phenomenal colleagues. It’s a team sport.”
Silicon Prairie News, which was recognized as the 2026 Innovation Champion for its journalistic work in covering the local and regional entrepreneurial and startup ecosystem.
“Those stories matter,” Dr. Dixon said. “They help founders get noticed and help investors find deals. When SPN covers a funding round, the story signals the health of the entire community, not just one company. Many startup communities have no outlet like SPN. Nebraska is not one of them.”