UK innovators honored at Patent Palooza! 2025
LEXINGTON, Ky. (Oct.10, 2025) — UK Innovate celebrated the achievements of innovators across campus at Patent Palooza! 2025.
These researchers, entrepreneurs and industry partners all drive intellectual property creation, commercialization success and entrepreneurial growth at the University of Kentucky. In Fiscal Year (FY) 2025, UK saw the most patents issued, the most licenses executed and the second-most inventions disclosed in UK history.
In FY 2025, 29 teams completed Launch Blue’s UAccel program, and more than 100 UK innovators were issued 61 patents, had 40 licenses and options executed for their innovations, and received four Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Technology Transfer (SBIR/STTR) awards.
The event featured a short compilation video of four faculty members with pioneering ideas as part of the “I am a UK Innovator” series. The faculty members include:
- Julie Cerel, Ph.D., professor in the UK College of Social Work, for her work on CODE RED Safety Planning — a proactive crisis planning intervention. CODE Red stands for “COntact,” “DElay decisions,” “RElax” and “Distract.” This approach fosters open dialogue and encourages individuals to create a simple, customized safety plan they can access during a crisis.
- John Anthony, Ph.D, the C. W. Hammond Professor of Chemistry in the UK College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Chemistry and associate director of the UK Center for Applied Energy Research, for his work developing new materials that will allow quantum computers to operate at room temperature.
- Allen Page, D.V.M., Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Veterinary Science at the Maxwell H. Gluck Equine Research Center in the UK Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment, for his work on disease and injury detection and developing diagnostic tools for the equine industry.
- Guoqiang Yu, Ph.D., professor in the F. Joseph Halcomb III, M.D. Department of Biomedical Engineering in the UK Stanley and Karen Pigman College of Engineering, for his work on imaging and sensing tools. Specifically, Yu is developing special magnifying glasses with a built-in glowing light technology to help surgeons see and remove brain tumors more accurately.
UK Innovate and Research Communications will spotlight each innovator in depth later this fall.
Patent Palooza! 2025 was held Sept. 23 in the Gatton Student Center. Learn more here.
As the state’s flagship, land-grant institution, the University of Kentucky exists to advance the Commonwealth. We do that by preparing the next generation of leaders — placing students at the heart of everything we do — and transforming the lives of Kentuckians through education, research and creative work, service and health care. We pride ourselves on being a catalyst for breakthroughs and a force for healing, a place where ingenuity unfolds. It's all made possible by our people — visionaries, disruptors and pioneers — who make up 200 academic programs, a $476.5 million research and development enterprise and a world-class medical center, all on one campus.