faculty success

The National Academy of Inventors (NAI) has named two NJIT faculty members — Cesar Bandera, master teacher and Leir Endowed Chair for Entrepreneurship, and Sara Zapico, assistant professor of forensic science — to the 2026 class of Senior Members. They are among 230 emerging academic inventors from 82 member institutions selected for demonstrated success in producing technologies that have been patented, licensed, commercialized, or possess strong potential for real-world impact. 

Wen Zhang, a professor at NJIT’s Newark College of Engineering, has been named a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). The program honors academic and institutional inventors, and the induction recognizes Zhang’s work using nanomaterials to break down environmental pollutants, recover nutrients from wastewater and support sustainable agriculture.

New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) President Teik C. Lim was honored with the 2025 Trailblazer Award at the New Jersey Business Hall of Fame, presented by Junior Achievement of New Jersey (JANJ). The event recognized leaders whose vision, innovation and community impact are shaping the state’s economic and educational landscape.

World War II has been revisited countless times in books and films. But NJIT professor Laura Montanari set out on a unique songwriting project to bring to life overlooked voices in the Allied fight against fascism — heroines of Italy’s underground resistance.

Her new collection of “archival songs”— blending original music with interviews from female partisans (partigiane) who resisted the Nazi occupation and Fascist Italian Social Republic in the 1940s — has gained international recognition.

New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) and the New Jersey Innovation Institute (NJII) today announced the launch of PureTrace Labs, a startup created to bring NJIT-developed technology for rapid detection of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) to market.

The company marks the first official launch from NJII’s Venture Studio, supported by an investment of up to $1 million.

Eliza Michalopoulou, a mathematician who develops acoustic techniques to reveal uncharted features of the ocean and the movements of its inhabitants, is this year’s winner of NJIT’s Foundation Excellence in Research and Innovation award.

Her field, geoacoustic inversion, uses signal processing and mathematical models to transform underwater sound waves into detailed information about the location of sources such as submarines and whales, and characteristics of the seabed. She studies how physical properties of the ocean shape the way sound travels beneath the surface.