Innovation Leaders at NJIT Recognized by 2026 INNOVATE100 Awards
New Jersey Institute of Technology and its affiliated innovation enterprise, New Jersey Innovation Institute, are well-represented among the honorees recognized in the 2026 INNOVATE100 awards, a distinction that celebrates leaders advancing innovation across industries, research, public service and entrepreneurship. The recognition highlights a broad cross-section of NJIT and NJII talent — from academic leadership and scientific discovery to health care transformation, venture development, artificial intelligence and athletics administration.
This year’s honorees reflect the depth and range of innovation taking shape across the university and its broader ecosystem. Together, they illustrate how NJIT’s faculty, administrators and applied innovation leaders are driving progress in areas such as sustainability, data science, translational research, health care delivery, environmental engineering, design and commercialization — extending the university’s mission from the classroom and laboratory to industry and communities across New Jersey and beyond.
The honorees from NJIT and NJII:
Senjuti Basu Roy is the Panasonic Endowed Chair in Sustainability at New Jersey Institute of Technology, and an associate professor in the Department of Computer Science. She is the director of the Big Data Analytics Lab, and her research investigates the intersection between data management, information retrieval and artificial intelligence.
John Pelesko is Provost and Executive Vice President of Academic Affairs at New Jersey Institute of Technology, working closely with NJIT President Teik C. Lim and the Board of Trustees to identify, communicate and achieve NJIT's academic and research goals. An NJIT alumnus, Pelesko earned his Ph.D. at the university in mathematical sciences.
Thomas Villani is Vice President of Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning at New Jersey Innovation Institute, an independent non-profit corporation at New Jersey Institute of Technology that connects university research with industry and innovators. Villani's interdisciplinary background includes business and pharmaceutical development, as well as AI/ML.
Jennifer D'Angelo is Senior Vice President and General Manager overseeing the Healthcare Division at NJIT's New Jersey Innovation Institute. She has more than two decades of experience in the healthcare industry. Under D'Angelo's supervision, her division runs the New Jersey Health Information Network on behalf of the New Jersey Department of Health. The division's for-profit subsidiary — Healthcare Innovation Solutions — serves thousands of doctors nationwide.
Lenny Kaplan, Vice President and Director of Athletics at New Jersey Institute of Technology, has helmed NJIT's Division of Physical Education and Athletics since August 2000. In 2002, Kaplan led NJIT to a successful reclassification as NCAA Division I. During his tenure, NJIT expanded its athletics program: from nine sports and 125 athletes in 2000, to the current 19 varsity programs with more than 325 athletes.
Mary Jane Durkin is Director of New Jersey Innovation Institute’s Venture Studio, a joint initiative between NJII and the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, as part of the state’s Strategic Innovation Centers initiative. At the Studio, Durkin is developing a repeatable model for the creation and growth of new companies, fueled by NJIT research. Durkin works closely with NJIT's Office of Undergraduate Research and the Center for Translational Research, to help student and faculty researchers evaluate and leverage commercial applications for their work.
Genoa Warner is an Assistant Professor in NJIT's Department of Chemistry and Environmental Science in the College of Science and Liberal Arts, researching how environmental chemicals disrupt the female reproductive system. She received her Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University's Department of Chemistry, where she developed small molecule oxidation catalysts capable of breaking down micropollutants in water.
Michel Boufadel is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at NJIT, working on water technologies, water resources and energy. His research includes remediation of contaminated sites; computational modeling of physical, chemical and biological processes; and environmental fluid mechanics, applicable to mitigation of oil spills. He provided solutions to the Exxon Valdez oil spill (1989) and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill (2010).
Won Hee Ko is an Assistant Professor in NJIT's Hillier College of Architecture and Design, where she explores the intersection of high-performance building sustainability and occupant health, comfort and safety. Her current research tests how different facade materials affect view access and clarity, incorporating tools such as virtual reality and 3D point cloud systems — detailed representations in 3D space of scanned objects and environments.