Collat professor and Associate Dean of Research, Innovation and Faculty Success Molly Wasko, Ph.D. opens a new website, has been named UAB University Professor by the University of Alabama System Board of Trustees.
The UAB University Professor designation is a prestigious campus-wide appointment that bestows an academic rank that transcends departmental lines, offering the greatest latitude in scholarly research, teaching, and writing across all university disciplines.
Wasko was named a University Professor in recognition of her significant academic and professional contributions, numerous professional achievements and academic research and teaching across the university.
"The designation as a University Professor recognizes the importance and worth of interdisciplinary connections to drive our enterprise forward and help us face the future challenges in higher education," Wasko said. "It is an extreme honor and privilege to be awarded this recognition and validation that this is important work that we need to continue."
Since her introduction to UAB in 2010, Wasko has garnered national attention for her research and partnership with National Science Foundation's Innovation Corps (I-Corps), and I-Corps at NIH national programs. I-Corps is the premier, federally-funded innovation and commercialization training program in the United States.
Through Wasko's efforts, UAB has received more than $5 million in grants to develop and deliver I-Corps training opens a new website to scientists, clinicians and engineers to accelerate the translation of discoveries from the lab to the marketplace.
Wasko's research explores the intersection of technology and organizations with special focus on models of open innovation and digital transformation. Her research has been cited more than 12,825 times and has appeared in Management Information Systems Quarterly, Journal of the Association for Information Systems, Decision Sciences and many more publications.
Along with colleagues in the UAB School of Engineering and College of Arts and Sciences, Wasko has established an interdisciplinary culture of innovation and entrepreneurship across the university through the creation of the student-led UAB Maker Space, the University Innovation Fellows student organization and the Master of Engineering program with a concentration in design and commercialization.
Wasko also plays a significant leadership role in UAB's Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS), a university-wide research center focused on the translation of fundamental and clinical research into improvements for human health and healthcare delivery. Her work with the CCTS has focused on the integration of organizational innovation, entrepreneurship and strategy to help UAB accelerate the pace of discovery from the bench to the bedside.
"Dr. Wasko has met very high standards for cross-disciplinary activities in teaching and research," Collat Dean Eric P. Jack, Ph.D., said. "Her success [with I-Corps] has earned her a national reputation at both NIH and NSF and an invitation to join the national teaching team for the I-Corps at NIH program."
Wasko becomes the only current UAB University Professor within the Collat School of Business and one of only nine currently teaching at UAB.