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Wilson College of Textiles 
Wilson College Awards Information

Dr. John S. Risley Entrepreneur of the Year Award

Important Dates:

8.2.24  Packages are due to department/unit heads – contact your department/unit head for what is required
8.7.24 Full packages are due to the Award Review Group – nominees to email them to Xiangwu Zhang
8.12.24 Award Review Group sends comments and suggestions about packages back to the nominees
8.14.24 Final packages are due to the dean’s office – nominees to email them to the dean’s EA
8.16.24 Packages are due to the university – Dean’s EA will submit

Wilson College of Textiles Nomination Limit: The associate dean for research may nominate up to two candidates for each award. Each department head, center director or other interested parties may nominate one individual for each award. 

Award Review Group (all by position): Emiel DenHartog, Behnam Pourdeyhimi, Abdel-Fattah Seyam, Xiangwu Zhang

Award Information
This award is presented annually to a faculty or staff entrepreneur that has demonstrated excellence in entrepreneurship.

Award Website: https://research.ncsu.edu/commercialization/impact/celebration-of-innovation/#guidelines

Criteria

  • Startup activity – the nominee is the founder, co-founder of, or key collaborator for a university startup; nominee’s research is being or has been commercialized through a startup company.
  • Impact of companies and/or non-profits launched or supported.
    • The impact can be measured in involvement with new startup companies, the number of jobs created, revenue generated, production of products or services that benefit consumers and/or improve the quality of life, etc.
  • Demonstrates the best traits of entrepreneurship, including business creativity and perseverance.
  • Entrepreneurial Impact – Encourages entrepreneurialism both on and off campus.

Eligibility
Previous winners are not eligible.

Required Materials
Nominations will be sent electronically by the Dean’s EA to commercialization@ncsu.edu. Nominations should include a letter of support no longer than 2 pages addressing the criteria described above.