Penn Center for Innovation wraps 2023 with awards and a year-in-review report

Penn Center for Innovation (PCI), the University of Pennsylvania’s tech commercialization arm, is wrapping up 2023 by reflecting on its successes and recognizing outstanding members of its community.

PCI hosted its eighth annual Celebration of Innovation and presented five awards on Tuesday evening. Here are the honorees:

• Holger Kissel, SVP of scientific relations and liaison, on behalf of BioNTech, won Deal of the Year.
• Shu Yang, Joseph Bordogna Professor, chemical and biomolecular engineering and materials science and engineering at Penn, won Inventor of the Year award.
• Steve Kelly, president and CEO, on behalf of Carisma Therapeutics, won Startup of the Year.
• Sean McCooe, president, on behalf of McCooe and Associates, won the Paul D. Sehnert Memorial Partner of the Year Award.
• Firooz Alfatouni, associate professor of electrical and systems engineering at Penn, won Emerging Inventor of the Year.

The event comes soon after PCI released its FY2023 Year in Review report, which runs through PCI’s highlights over the last fiscal year.

Read the report

Here are a few stats included in the report:

• Penn-affiliated startups raised or received a combined $1.2 billion.
• In the past five years, over 100 startups spun out of Penn.
• 105 US patents were issued
• 125 companies are based at Pennovation Works
• Penn ranked #1 nationally for licensing agreement income

“The strength of these commercialization activities is a leading indicator of the world-class innovation and exceptional science pursued by Penn’s faculty and research community,” John S. Swartley, associate vice provost and managing director for PCI, said in the report. “The positive translation of these scientific and technical breakthroughs into new products and services in collaboration with our many valued partners in the private sector is having a profound and positive impact on the global population.”

Sarah Huffman is a 2022-2024 corps member for Report for America, an initiative of The Groundtruth Project that pairs young journalists with local newsrooms. This position is supported by the Lenfest Institute for Journalism.