L-R: Michael E. Zwick, senior vice president for research; Keena Arbuthnot, executive vice president for academic affairs and chief academic officer; Distinguished Professor Eric Lam; Deborah Perez Fernandez, executive director of Technology Transfer; and Vince Smeraglia, executive director of New Ventures. Photo credit: Rutgers Office for Research.
Eric Lam, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Plant Biology, was the recipient of the Agriculture Innovation Award at the Rutgers Office of Research banquet on Oct 7, celebrating the 2025 awards winners with peers, industry executives and Rutgers University leadership.
The Rutgers Innovation Awards, hosted by the Rutgers Office for Research for the second year in a row, recognize researchers who have demonstrated excellence by developing a breakthrough idea, process or technology that has shown its transformational potential to improve lives and create economic value.
Distinguished Professor Eric Lam.
“Coming from my peers at Rutgers, this award is very special and gratifying for me as a researcher and innovator. The passion that I have had during my career of 35 years at Rutgers to translate fundamental plant biology research into more sustainable solutions for crop protection has finally borne fruit,” said Lam, who was among 10 awardees celebrated this year.
Nominated by their peers or themselves and reviewed by teams of external experts in each award field, the winners were scored based on novelty, competitive advantage, impact, utility, socio-economic value of the innovation and the significance of the problem solved.
Lam has worked closely with the Rutgers Office of Research and Technology Transfer over the course of a distinguished career at the university and pledged to continue his work, “Creating a New generation of Agrichemicals to Combat Plant Diseases by Harnessing Plant Metacaspases.”
“I look forward to realizing the great potential of our invention and help produce a new generation of agrichemicals and crop varieties that could improve plant health while minimizing collateral impacts on the environment,” he added.
Rutgers executive vice president for academic affairs and chief academic officer Keena Arbuthnot, and senior vice president for research Michael E. Zwick, presented awards to the 2025 winners, following introductory remarks that set the tone for the ceremony.
The event also recognized current Rutgers inventors who were issued U.S. patents during the fiscal year 2025 and innovators with non-patent intellectual property that did not receive the award in prior fiscal years and are either licensed with received revenue or licensed multiple times with or without revenue, as well as Office for Research Technology Transfer Trainees who completed their year-long appointments.
Attendees at the inaugural Rutgers Innovation Awards in 2025 hosted by the Rutgers Office for Research. Photo credit: Rutgers Office for Research.
“The Rutgers Innovation Awards highlight the importance and value of teamwork in research,” said Zwick. “Societal challenges are becoming more complex, and the requirements for solving them constantly evolve for faculty, students, staff, and industry. We are all in this together, and we are a team with one goal: to leave a better world for our children and future Americans so they can pursue opportunities and make a life as rich and rewarding as the one we are privileged to live.”
Deborah Perez Fernandez, executive director of Technology Transfer—the unit within the Office for Research that supports researchers throughout the tech transfer process— offered congratulations to the research teams on their well-deserved awards. “The Technology Transfer team works hand-in-hand with Rutgers researchers on their commercialization and entrepreneurial journeys, and we are excited to see the impact these innovations will have on people’s lives,” said Perez Fernandez.
Each Innovation Award team member received a certificate, while patent recipients and non-patent intellectual property honorees were presented with plaques to honor their achievements, and the FY25 Tech Transfer Trainees received certificates. Read more at Rutgers Office for Research website.
