A professor of orthopaedic surgery, who has co-founded two startup businesses and is actively working on launching more, received the Bill L. Harbert Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship’s highest honor during the institute’s annual Innovation Awards Oct. 10, 2025.
Ashish Shah, M.D., co-founder of Periop Ortho and SecOpp, was given the 2025 Award for Excellence in Entrepreneurship. Periop Ortho is dedicated to improving surgery experiences and outcomes for both patients and physicians, while SecOpp is working to close gaps in global health care by offering patients in underserved regions access to second opinions from UAB physicians and surrounding healthcare providers.
Shah was one of an esteemed group of innovators who were honored with Innovation Awards, including:
From left to right, Shegun Otulana, Jaival Vikal, Gary Lessing, Ashish Shah and Masakazu Kamata stand with their Innovation Awards. (Photo by Catie James Wilson)
- iNOvodel, Startup of the Year – iNOvodel, founded by Nagababu Enika, Ph.D., and Dan Berkowitz, M.D., both of the Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, and experienced life sciences CEO Gary Lessing, focuses on developing non-gas-tank-based devices for the delivery of inhaled nitric oxide.
- Harmony Venture Labs, Community Partner of the Year – Harmony Venture Labs has partnered with the Harbert Institute to offer the Blazer App Accelerator program. The accelerator helps potential UAB software and app creators validate ideas that are ready for further funding.
- Masakazu Kamata, Most Prolific Inventor – Kamata, an Associate Professor in the Department of Microbiology, was named on five intellectual property disclosures in fiscal year 2025.
- Jaival Vikal, Most Outstanding Entrepreneurship Student.
“Our Innovation Award winners represent the very best of UAB’s creative spirit as visionaries whose ideas are shaping the future, both on campus and beyond,” said Karthik Gopalakrishnan, Ph.D., Senior Director at the Harbert Institute. “We’re incredibly proud of what they’ve accomplished and excited to see where their innovations will lead next.”
The Harbert Institute also inducted five new members into the UAB Chapter of the National Academy of Inventors. Those new members include:
- Namasivayam Ambalavanan, M.D., the Virginia Walker Jones Endowed Chair in Neonatology in the Department of Pediatrics, Heersink School of Medicine.
- Amit Gaggar, M.D., Professor of Medicine in the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine, Heersink School of Medicine.
- Richard Popple, Ph.D., Professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology, Heersink School of Medicine.
- Steven Rowe, M.D., Professor of Medicine in the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine, Heersink School of Medicine.
- Andrei Stanishevsky, Ph.D., Professor in the Department of Physics in the College of Arts and Sciences.
-- Oct. 10, 2025