Campus News
Chancellor’s 2024 innovation awards honor excellence in research and impact
The recipients include innovators who have created breakthroughs in knowledge and technology that are improving our world and community partners.
The awardees of the 2024 Chancellor’s Innovation Impact Awards: (left to right) Nader Pourmand, Jacob Martinez, Andy Yeh, and Jason Eshraghian.(Photo by Nick Gonzales/UC Santa Cruz)
UC Santa Cruz has announced the recipients of the 2024 Chancellor’s Innovation Impact Awards, which honor outstanding research with far-reaching impact.
The awards, including Innovator of the Year, Translation of the Year, Community Changemaker, and Lifetime Achievement in Innovation were presented at a celebration on May 1. The recipients include innovators who have created breakthroughs in knowledge and technology that are improving our world and community partners.
“Innovation is an essential component of our mission as a public research university,” said Chancellor Cynthia Larive. “We are committed to finding solutions to the greatest challenges the world faces and that requires creative approaches and bold thinking. That’s what defines our work to deliver tangible, positive impact in the world and strengthen the communities we serve.”
The awards program is organized by the Innovation & Business Engagement Hub, in recognition of transformational work across UC Santa Cruz.
“UC Santa Cruz faculty lead through inquiry, experimentation, and creative work that challenges assumptions and drives change,” said Campus Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Lori Kletzer. “Their innovations, across disciplines and approaches, are expanding knowledge and transforming how we address the social, environmental, and technological challenges of our time.”
Innovator of the Year
Jason Eshraghian, assistant professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and his research team received the Innovator of the Year Award for a cross-disciplinary breakthrough that reimagines how artificial intelligence can operate—by taking cues from the human brain.
This deeply interdisciplinary work draws from neuroscience, computer science, and microelectronics to create more efficient, sustainable AI. Eshraghian’s research is grounded in the principle of brain-inspired computing: in contrast to traditional AI systems that are always “on,” the human brain conserves energy by activating only when needed.
Their innovation directly tackles one of the most urgent challenges in AI: energy consumption. Today’s AI systems rely on matrix multiplication (MatMul), a computational process that has driven the cost of language models like ChatGPT to approximately $700,000 a day in energy use. Eshraghian’s team eliminated MatMul entirely with a novel deep learning model that achieves comparable performance while using just 13 watts—the equivalent of a household light bulb.
That same brain-inspired concept is central to SpikeGPT, the team’s spiking neural network for language generation. These networks mirror the behavior of biological neurons, activating only when stimulated, in contrast to conventional models that continuously process data. The result is a powerful, low-energy model for information processing and language generation.
Eshraghian’s brain-inspired computing techniques have been accessed hundreds of thousands of times through an open-source code library, and are being used in a wide variety of projects, from NASA satellite tracking to semiconductor companies optimizing chips for AI.
Translation of the Year
This new award recognizes an innovation with the potential for broad, real-world impact that stems from UC Santa Cruz research. It recognizes projects that, in the past year, have made major progress toward commercialization, implementation, or adoption—through applied development, validation, or translation into practice.
The multiplex de novo luciferase technology developed by Assistant Professor of Biomolecular Engineering Andy Yeh’s lab received the award for groundbreaking work in developing artificial proteins that emit light—a key innovation in accelerating large-scale drug discovery and answering fundamental biological questions. Unlike fluorescent compounds or proteins that require external light to glow, these engineered systems emulate natural bioluminescence, using a self-illuminating biochemical reaction to generate visible light.
By harnessing computational protein design, Yeh’s team creates new-to-nature proteins capable of luminescence— featuring sequences and chemistry never seen in nature, yet generating light akin to that produced by fireflies and jellyfish, which evolved this trait over millions of years. The biocompatible and non-invasive light emission opens new possibilities for bioimaging, diagnostics, drug discovery, and real-time biological tracking. Most importantly, the engineering process enabled emission in multiple colors, allowing simultaneous labeling of distinct biological events—thus enabling multiplexing – the detection of multiple analytes in a single experiment.
Their designer proteins, called neoLux, are optimized for enhanced brightness and stability, making them especially effective in living cells, tissues, and disease model animals. This increased performance allows for more precise imaging and faster identification of promising treatments—transforming both basic research and applied medicine.
Yeh’s innovative approach builds on his postdoctoral training with 2024 Nobel Prize laureate – David Baker, whose pioneering method known as de novo protein design laid the foundation for creating new biological light at the interface of chemistry and biology.
Yeh is carrying that vision forward, a startup company founded by a team in Yeh’s network and focused on computational protein design is taking this technology out of the university to commercialize the light-emitting enzymes as part of its portfolio of life sciences tools and clinical diagnostics, expanding the reach of light-based technologies in medicine. In a paper recently published as a cover story in Chem, Yeh demonstrated that his non-invasive imaging technique using de novo light-emitting enzymes can monitor the growth of multiple tumors in mice over time. This offers a more efficient and humane method for evaluating drug effectiveness in preclinical studies, eliminating the need to sacrifice animals at multiple stages. Such technology will unlock new opportunities to explore complex biology and enable new therapeutics.
Community Changemaker
In 2014, UC Santa Cruz alumnus Jacob Martinez (Oakes ’04, evolutionary biology) founded Digital NEST, a technology workforce development hub rooted in the belief that talent exists in every community—and that opportunity should, too. Digital NEST has been awarded the 2024 Chancellor’s Innovation Impact Award for Community Changemaker.
The organization equips youth ages 14-24 in under-resourced communities with in-demand digital skills, mentorship, and real-world experience to help them build successful careers, often right in the places where they grew up. This initiative transforms the lives of underserved Latine youth in California through professional development and networking opportunities that launch successful careers and empower future leaders.
What began in Watsonville has now expanded to five locations across California, offering training and career pathways in fields like digital marketing, IT, and web development. Digital NEST also runs an in-house digital media agency that provides professional services while training youth interns on paid projects for real world clients like the Blue Zones Project.
Just miles from Silicon Valley, these communities have historically been overlooked by the tech industry. Digital NEST flips that narrative, showing that when companies invest in local talent, they unlock innovation, loyalty, and lasting community impact. NEST-ers, as youth members are called, not only launch careers—they help solve regional challenges, reinvest in their hometowns, and spark long-term economic growth.
Digital NEST and UC Santa Cruz share a deep and growing partnership—rooted in Martinez’s own experience as a student and in the university’s public mission. Today, UCSC students intern through the Watsonville Center, and alumni serve on the Digital Nest staff, continuing the cycle of mentorship, opportunity, and community-driven change.
Lifetime Achievement in Innovation
Nader Pourmand, professor of biomolecular engineering, has been awarded the 2024 Lifetime Achievement in Innovation Award.
The award recognizes a faculty member whose career accomplishments include innovations that have led to significant, long-term societal impact and who is an inspiration and positive influence for students and colleagues.
Across his career, Pourmand has been devoted to developing accessible and affordable tools that help scientists in all fields advance their research.
Pioneering Nanopipette Technology
Since joining UC Santa Cruz in 2008, Pourmand has led cutting-edge work in nanopipette sensing technology—a platform that enables scientists to analyze single living cells and collect data from their internal compartments, such as the nucleus and endosomes.
The tool uses a fine-tipped glass pipette—less than 100 nanometers wide which is 500 times thinner than a human hair—to go directly inside a cell without disturbing it. By applying a negative or positive voltage at the very tip it can act like a plunger aspirating or injecting material. Researchers can take samples as often as every 15 minutes, offering an unprecedented look at dynamic cellular processes, such as changes in gene expression in response to treatments or stress.
The Japan-based company Yokogawa Electric is preparing to manufacture and release the nanopipettes later this year, expanding access to the platform globally.
Innovation Across Disciplines
In 2017, Pourmand won first place in the National Institutes of Health’s Follow the Cell Challenge, a highly competitive initiative that sought groundbreaking methods for tracking how cells transition from a healthy to a diseased state. His approach offered novel possibilities for early detection and precision medicine.
He is also the co-founder of three biotechnology startups—Pinpoint Science Inc., MagArray, and BioStinger Inc., the latter of which was acquired by Yokogawa Electric. The companies emerged from his lab’s research and reflect his long-standing focus on translating discoveries into practical, real-world applications.
Responding to the COVID-19 Pandemic
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Pourmand and his team developed a nanosensor-based serology test that can rapidly detect and quantify antibodies to the coronavirus from a finger-prick blood sample—in less than a minute. The test uses disposable cartridges and a relatively inexpensive reader, providing a fast and cost-effective tool for identifying individuals who have been previously infected, including asymptomatic cases.
Real-Time Environmental and Food Monitoring
Earlier this year, Pourmand received a UC Santa Cruz Innovation Catalyst Grant to support the development of a new biosensor capable of detecting groundwater contamination and the sweetness of zero-calorie foods and beverages in real time. The hand-held enzyme-free electrochemical sensor delivers instant, low-cost measurements, with potential applications in environmental monitoring and food quality testing.
A Lasting Legacy
From foundational breakthroughs in single-cell analysis to rapid-response public health tools, Pourmand’s career has been defined by innovation with real-world impact.
He has long been driven by a desire to create technologies that enable others. His hope is that the nanopipette platform will empower researchers across disciplines to advance their work and pursue questions that were previously out of reach. At the heart of his vision is a future where people can take their health into their own hands, with early detection tools that provide information long before disease symptoms appear.
Selection Process
Awardees are selected by the chancellor, campus provost and executive vice chancellor, and vice chancellor for research, informed by input from Innovation Impact Awards Review Committee. The committee is organized by the assistant vice chancellor for Innovation & Business Engagement and includes one representative from the Divisions the Arts, Humanities, Physical & Biological Sciences, and Social Sciences, Baskin School of Engineering, and Office of Research.