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Olympus Announces 2009 Winners of Olympus Innovation Awards

Posted on: Monday, 23 March 2009, 07:30 CDT

Program Recognizes Innovative Educators from Ohio State University, Bainbridge Graduate Institute and University of California-Davis

CENTER VALLEY, Pa., March 23 /PRNewswire/ -- Olympus, a precision technology leader creating innovative opto-digital solutions in healthcare, life science and consumer electronics products, today announced the 2009 winners in the Olympus Innovation Award Program: Michael Camp, Ph.D., academic director of the Center for Entrepreneurship at Ohio State's Fisher College of Business; Gifford Pinchot III, president emeritus, and Jill Bamburg, dean emeritus, Bainbridge Graduate Institute; and Andrew Hargadon, associate professor, Graduate School of Management, University of California-Davis. The national program, executed by Olympus in partnership with the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA), recognizes individuals who have fostered or demonstrated innovative thinking in education. The winners received their awards at NCIIA's 13th Annual Meeting last week in Alexandria, Va.

The Olympus Innovation Awards Program, now in its fifth year, represents Olympus' ongoing commitment to technological innovation and education. The Program includes three awards: The Olympus Innovation Award, the Olympus Lifetime of Educational Innovation Award and the Olympus Emerging Educational Leader Award.

"We are pleased to celebrate our fifth consecutive year as a partner with NCIIA and sponsor of the Olympus Innovation Awards Program," said F. Mark Gumz, president and chief executive officer, Olympus Corporation of the Americas. "As an industry and business innovation thought leader, Olympus is proud to recognize the excellence in academia responsible for educating the next generation of business leaders in the competitive global marketplace."

"Our partnership with Olympus continues to grow and for the past five years, we have recognized a wealth of talented candidates that exemplify excellence and innovation in higher education," said Phil Weilerstein, executive director, NCIIA, based in Hadley, Mass. "The fact that we are able to reward these individuals during a challenging economic climate speaks volumes for the passion and dedication Olympus and NCIIA have for those educators stimulating and inspiring innovative thinking in students."

Michael Camp, designer of the Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialization (TEC) Academy and the TEC Institute, won the 2009 Olympus Innovation Award for his work at Ohio State University, where he trains business and science students in technology commercialization and entrepreneurship. The Olympus Innovation Award recognizes a faculty member who fosters an environment of innovative thinking among students through inventive teaching methods, projects and case studies. The TEC Institute is the outreach/community development arm of the program and gives OSU students access to various technologies resulting in business concepts emerging from the more than $1.4 billion in R&D spending in central Ohio alone.

Andrew Hargadon, associate professor, Graduate School of Management, University of California-Davis and a former design engineer for IDEO Product Development and Apple Computer, captured the Olympus Emerging Educational Leader Award. This award recognizes an individual who has inspired innovative thinking in students in a discrete area and whom the judges believe has the potential to make even greater contributions to the field in the future. He was recognized for his strong curriculum and notable success in moving technologies from the lab to the marketplace. The UC Davis MBA program has been ranked among the top 50 in the U.S. for 13 consecutive years by U.S. News & World Report. Hargadon's further recognition stems from his outstanding research and teaching efforts at the undergraduate (as Director of the Technology Management Program) and graduate level (MBA courses in organizational behavior and technology management).

Gifford Pinchot and Jill Bamburg, co-founders of the Bainbridge Graduate Institute, were jointly granted the Olympus Lifetime of Educational Innovation Award for their significant impact on the university and local region. Their development of programs has motivated students and colleagues to think innovatively and their curriculum infuses sustainability and social justice principles throughout traditional MBA disciplines that focus on the triple bottom line of people, planet and profit. BGI's curriculum has been adopted by several other graduate schools, and is considered a leader among sustainable business programs. The Olympus Lifetime of Educational Innovation Award recognizes faculty members who have demonstrated a sustained contribution throughout their careers to stimulating and inspiring innovative thinking in students in their own universities and throughout academia.

About Olympus

Olympus is a precision technology leader, creating innovative opto-digital solutions in healthcare, life science and consumer electronics products. Olympus works collaboratively with its customers and its affiliates worldwide to leverage R&D investment in precision technology and manufacturing processes across diverse business lines. These include:

• Gastrointestinal endoscopes, accessories, and minimally invasive surgical products;
• Advanced clinical and research microscopes;
• Lab automation systems, chemistry-immuno and blood bank analyzers and reagents;
• Digital cameras and voice recorders.

Olympus serves healthcare and commercial laboratory markets with integrated product solutions and financial, educational and consulting services that help customers to efficiently, reliably and more easily achieve exceptional results. Olympus develops breakthrough technologies with revolutionary product design and functionality for the consumer and professional photography markets, and also is the leader in gastrointestinal endoscopy and clinical and educational microscopes. For more information, visit www.olympusamerica.com.

ABOUT NCIIA

The NCIIA was established in 1995 with support from The Lemelson Foundation. Its mission is to foster invention, innovation, and entrepreneurship in higher education - components of the higher education curriculum that are vital to the nation's economic future. The NCIIA accomplishes its goals by supporting curricula and programs that encourage the development and the work of E-Teams - multidisciplinary teams of students, faculty, and industry mentors working together to take an idea for a technological innovation and bring it through prototype development to commercialization. The "E" stands for excellence and entrepreneurship.

Editor's Note: For more information on the Olympus Innovation Awards Program, as well as photos from the awards ceremony, please see the backgrounder at www.olympuspresspass.com, contact the NCIIA at info@nciia.org, or visit www.nciia.org.

SOURCE Olympus

Source: PR Newswire

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