Ralph Henry of InterveXion to Lead UA Contingent at SEC Symposium
Ralph Henry, a researcher at the University of Arkansas and co-founder of Innovate Arkansas client firm InterveXion Therapeutics, will be one of five UA innovators at the third-annual Southeastern Conference Symposium Sept. 20-22 in Atlanta.
InterveXion Therapeutics, a UAMS startup, is a pharmaceutical R&D company focused on developing antibody-based medicines to treat drug abuse. Henry will lead a presentation at the symposium.
The annual SEC Symposium brings together representatives from the league's 14 schools to address academic issues and talk football. Ha. Well, they probably do talk some football. But the symposium is a mission of SECU, the academic initiative of the SEC (which was initially based in Fayetteville, by the way, but now resides with SEC home offices in Birmingham).
Its official mission is to "address a significant scholarly issue by utilizing the range of disciplinary strengths of all SEC universities in a manner that expands opportunities for collaboration among SEC faculty and administrators."
The subject of this year's symposium is a good one: “Creativity, Innovation & Entrepreneurship: Driving a 21st Century Economy.”
Joining Henry in the UA contingent as panelists will be:
- David Fredrick, associate professor of classics in Fulbright College and directs the college’s interdisciplinary humanities program.
- Peter MacKeith, dean and professor, Fay Jones School of Architecture. He was previously a professor of architecture at the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis.
- Carol Reeves, associate vice provost for entrepreneurship for the university. A professor of management, she is the Cecil & Gwendolyn Cupp Applied Professor in Entrepreneurship in the Sam M. Walton College of Business. She was the recipient of the university’s 2014 SEC Faculty Achievement Award. (Reeves is the architect of the UA's award-winning business-plan competition juggernaut that has produced several IA client firms such as Movista, Picasolar and Boston Mountain Biotech.)
Plus, Jon Johnson was selected as a symposium moderator. Johnson, who holds the Walton College Professorship in Sustainability, is the academic director of The Sustainability Consortium and executive director of the UA's Applied Sustainability Center.
Here's more on the symposium from the UA Newswire.
A sample:
The symposium offers opportunities for University of Arkansas faculty and students to learn from and share their expertise with SEC peers and colleagues. The goal of the 2015 SEC Symposium is to explore higher education’s role in preparing individuals to be creative, innovative and entrepreneurial thinkers and to evaluate the ways in which universities serve as drivers of economic development.
Ralph Henry, a Distinguished Professor of biological sciences at the U of A, is a symposium presenter. Henry is the W.M. Keck Professor in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences. The centerpieces of the endowed professorship are to enhance scholarly interdisciplinary research and create new businesses.
Good stuff. Again, more info here.