Adeoye Adeyemo, assistant professor of Education Policy, Organization & Leadership, has been named a 2026 Emerging Innovator by the University of Illinois' Office of Technology Management.
The award celebrates an important milestone in the innovation journey, recognizing a research discovery's broader potential and taking the first formal step toward exploring its translation into societal or commercial impact.
Adeyemo’s project is a documentary, currently in post-production, that focuses on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the East St. Louis community and student-athletes.
All faculty members reaching this milestone during the year are recognized as Emerging Innovators, creating an annual cohort of researchers beginning their engagement with the University’s innovation and commercialization ecosystem.
Gerald Wilson, the university’s director of entrepreneurship, says, “Our faculty innovators are among the most important drivers of Illinois’ entrepreneurial ecosystem. Their discoveries create opportunities for new technologies, companies, and solutions to important problems. We are proud to recognize both the promise of emerging innovators and the extraordinary accomplishments of faculty who have made research translation a sustained part of their work.”
