Audible, CoreWeave execs lead 2026 Edison Patent Awards honorees

Jessica Perry//August 21, 2026//

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Jessica Perry//August 21, 2026//

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The basics:

CoreWeave co-founders to receive 2026 Edison Patent Awards honors
Audible CEO Bob Carrigan named Visionary Award honoree
R&D Council selected 15 winning patents from 13 organizations
2026 Edison Patent Awards set for Nov. 19 at Bell Works

Executives from New Jersey-based giants Audible and CoreWeave lead the list of 2026 Edison Patent Awards honorees.

Distributed annually, the Research & Development Council of New Jersey will recognize 15 award-winning patents from 13 organizations this year, along with five distinguished individual honors presented to eight leaders.

The awards represent the Garden State’s highest distinction for invention and innovation. According to the council’s Aug. 19 announcement, this year’s event pays tribute to Thomas Edison’s belief that relentless invention changes the world.

The 7th Annual Edison Patent Awards: Revolution Through Innovation ceremony and reception will take place Nov. 19 at Bell Works in Holmdel. Find additional details here.

Public Service founder Thomas McCarter, center, hosts New Jersey Democratic Gov. A. Harry Moore, left, and inventor Thomas Edison, right, at the 1926 dedication of Kearny Generating Station. – PROVIDED BY PSEG

“Every revolution begins with curiosity,” said Virginie Maillard, chair of the Research & Development Council of New Jersey. Maillard also serves as head of global research in simulation and digital twin and head of research in the U.S. for Siemens Foundational Technologies.

“The inventors and leaders we recognize this year saw possibilities where others saw obstacles and imagined better solutions,” she added.

Individual honors

Science & Technology Medal – Mike Intrator, Brian Venturo, Brannin McBee and Peter Salanki; co-founders; CoreWeave

The Council’s highest individual honor showcases New Jersey leaders whose extraordinary performance has led to an impactful innovation reaching the marketplace. “From its New Jersey roots, CoreWeave has grown into the world’s leading AI Cloud, demonstrating the bold, commercially successful innovation this award was created to recognize,” the organization said.

Visionary Award – Bob Carrigan, CEO, Audible

Bob Carrigan, CEO, Audible Inc. — Carrigan

Recognizing his exceptional and transformational leadership in aligning industry, academia and government to help build a research-driven economy in New Jersey.

Educator of the Year – Lamont Repollet, president, Kean University

Repollet is recognized for leading a remarkable institutional rise rooted in access, research and workforce development, culminating in Kean’s designation as one of the nation’s newest research universities.

Catalyst Award – Atam Dhawan, Ph.D., chief strategic innovation officer and senior vice provost for research, New Jersey Institute of Technology

Dhawan has built the connections that turn New Jersey’s research strength into shared progress, convening universities, government and industry around challenges no single institution could solve alone, the R&D Council said.

Emerging Tech Award – Kathryn Carpenter, founder and CEO, Cecilia Materials

Recognizing early-stage innovation that shows exceptional potential to make a significant impact on the marketplace, Cecilia Materials’ technology transforms industrial plastic waste into high-value advanced carbons.

R&D Council Executive Director Kim Case noted that while the honorees’ work spans different industries, “the through line is the same: a revolution driven by innovation, right here in New Jersey.”

Patents

This year, the R&D Council selected winning technologies that include:

New methods for detecting vulnerable coronary plaque before heart attacks occur; improving hurricane prediction; strengthening optical communications systems; producing more resilient shellfish through controlled breeding; advancing pharmaceutical manufacturing; and creating technologies that reduce environmental impacts while improving industrial performance

See the full list of inventors and their inventions, along with patent numbers, below.

At the 46th annual Edison Patent Awards in 2025, the Research & Development Council of New Jersey honored Merck & Co. for the patent Solid Forms of Ceftolozane and Processes for Preparing (U.S. 11,542,279 B2). – PROVIDED BY RDNJ

Winning organizations include:

13 Mari Ltd.
911inform
Acustrip Co.
Chiral Photonics Inc.
Innerstill
Merck & Co. Inc.
NEC Laboratories America Inc.
Nokia Bell Labs,
Princeton University
Rowan University
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Siemens
Siemens Healthineers

According to the organization, a team of Council board members selected winners by evaluating patents for the significance of the problems solved, along with utility and socio-economic value, novelty and commercial impact.

Every winning patent must have at least part of its technical or scientific work completed in New Jersey.

ORGANIZATION	CATEGORY	PATENT	INVENTORS
13 Mari Ltd.	Environmental	Method, system and apparatus for reducing fluid drag U.S. Patent No. 11-946-497 B2	Krassimir Fotev Rumen Kishev Grigor Plamenov Nikolov
911inform	Public Safety	Geospatial physical location for emergency services calls using voice over internet protocol or multi-line telephone system U.S. Patent No. 12323895 B2	Ivo Allen
Acustrip Co. Inc.	Transportation	Method and kit for detecting diesel exhaust fluid in fuel U.S. Patent No. 12540930 B2	Ronald Schornstein Samuel D’Arcangelis
Chiral Photonics Inc.	Emerging Technology	Configurable pitch reducing optical fiber array U.S. Patent No. 8712199 B2	Victor Il’ich Kopp Jonathan Singer Daniel Neugroschl Jongchul Park Mitchell Wlodawski
Innerstill	Wellness	Wellness device using interference frequencies U.S. Patent No. 11491330 B2	Yakov Katsnelson Vladimir Chuev Hank Beckhoff
Merck & Co. Inc.	Pharmaceutical Process	Enzymatic synthesis of 4′-ethynyl nucleoside analogs U.S. Patent No. 12037623 B2	Mark Huffman Anna Fryszkowska Joshua Kolev Paul Devine Kevin Campos Matthew Truppo Christopher Nawrat
NEC Laboratories America Inc.	Enabling Technologies	Bidirectional optical communication and sensing WDM architecture using same fiber transmission band U.S. Patent No. 10763964 B2	Yue-Kai Huang Ezra Ip Philip Nan Ji Ming-Fang Huang
Nokia Bell Labs	Telecommunications	Method and apparatus for signal compression and decompression U.S. 8923386 B2	Dragan Samardzija John Pastalan William MacDonald Reinaldo Valenzuela
Princeton University	Biotechnology	Split inteins with exceptional splicing activity U.S. Patent No. 11142550 B2	Tom Muir Adam Stevens Neel Shah
Princeton University	Climate	System and method for environment-dependent probabilistic tropical cyclone modeling U.S. Patent No. 12601855 B2	Ning Lin Renzhi Jing
Rowan University	Advanced Manufacturing	System and method for electrospun fiber straining and collecting U.S. Patent No. 11015267 B2	Vince Beachley
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey	Industrial Processes	Methods of increasing toughness of immiscible polymer blends U.S. Patent No. 8497324 B2	Thomas Nosker Jennifer Lynch Richard Lehman James Idol Richard Renfree Maryann Renfree (legal representative)
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey	Aquaculture	Molluscan shellfish produced by controlled crossbreeding U.S. Patent No. 11266131 B2	Ximing Guo
Siemens	Information Technology	Explicit rule-based control of complex dynamical systems European Patent EP4370980	Dirk Hartmann Amit Pandey Suat Gumussoy Ulrich Muenz
Siemens Healthineers	Medical Technology	Fully automated assessment of coronary vulnerable plaque in coronary CT images using radiomic features U.S. Patent No. 12327349 B2	Pranjal Vaidya Mehmet Akif Gulsun Puneet Sharma