Editorial Staff

Amar Sawhney on Sikhs, STEM & COVID

/in , , , , , , /by Editorial Staff
Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Share on
LinkedIn
+

The entrepreneurial spirit among immigrants and refugees allows them the flexibility to pursue unexpected courses of action, adapt, accept risk and make the most of opportunities they didn’t even know of before. For Dr. Amar Sawhney from India, that started at the University of Texas at Austin with 30 job rejections out of 30 applications. But he charted a path that would see him go in directions hitherto unknown to him: getting a PhD, helping found a company, journeying to Boston, and starting a string of new companies, using his chemical engineering background to save lives through remarkable local therapy innovations. To date, he has founded eight companies accounting for 4,000 jobs and more than $2 billion in revenue. He’s been named a “Champion of Change” by The White House, one of the “five most innovative Medical Device CEOs” by MassDevice, the EY regional entrepreneur of the year, The Immigrant Learning Center’s own Immigrant Entrepreneur Awardee for Life Science Business. But his influence extends well beyond that space into environmental conservationism, safeguarding refugees, mentoring and promoting STEM education, and building public understanding of America’s Sikhs, as you’ll hear in this week’s episode of JobMakers.

Guest:

Amarpreet Sawhney, Ph.D., is the Chairman and CEO OF Instylla Inc which is developing new liquid embolics for tumor embolization and hemostasis. He is also CEO of Rejoni Inc., which is developing products to prevent adhesions following gynecological interventions. Previously he was President and CEO of Ocular Therapeutix, Inc. (OCUL: NASDAQ) a company focused on unmet needs in ophthalmic drug delivery. He was also the Chairman of Augmenix, Inc. (acquired by Boston Scientific), Founder and CEO of Confluent Surgical (acquired by Covidien), the Chairman of MarketRx (acquired by Cognizant), a provider of pharmaceutical marketing and sales analytics and intelligence, technology founder of Focal, Inc. (acquired by Genzyme) and Access Closure Inc. (acquired by Cardinal Health). He holds over 120 patents, which form the basis for several first-of-a-kind medical devices that have helped over 5 million patients worldwide. He has founded eight companies, which account for over 4,000 jobs created and over $2 billion in revenue to date. Dr. Sawhney helps foster entrepreneurship by mentoring young innovators and creating companies through Incept, a medical device incubator. He is a member of the board of directors of EcoSikh, Axtria, Imperative care, Instylla, Rejoni, Tulavi, and Incept LLC. He is on the advisory board of the MIT museum. Dr. Sawhney is passionate about education, wildlife, and environmental causes, which he is involved in supporting through his family foundation. Dr. Sawhney has been recognized by several awards including being named the “Champions of Change” and “Outstanding American by Choice” awards by the Whitehouse, “Five most innovative Medical Device CEOs” by MassDevice, MassMedic best startup company award, Frost and Sullivan Product innovation award, MIT Global Indus Technovators Award, the E&Y regional entrepreneur of the year award, Mass High Tech All Star award, TiE Star award, the University of Texas Outstanding Young Engineering Graduate award, and the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi Distinguished Alumni award. Dr. Sawhney holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and a B.Tech. in Chemical Engineering from IIT Delhi.

Get new episodes of JobMakers in your inbox!

Browse recent episodes of Pioneer podcasts:

Sweden’s Pandemic Paradigm: Does Trust in Citizenry Save Lives

Joe Selvaggi talks with Johan Norberg, author and senior fellow at CATO Institute, about his analysis of Sweden’s resistance to government-mandated COVID-19 control measures, as well as Sweden’s public health outcomes relative to the U.S and peer nations.

U-Ark. Prof. Albert Cheng on Classical Education & School Choice

This week on The Learning Curve, guest co-hosts Charlie Chieppo and Alisha Searcy speak with Albert Cheng, an Assistant Professor at the Department of Education Reform in the College of Education and Health Professions at the University of Arkansas. Professor Cheng talks about the importance of classical education for guiding educational philosophy and practice and shaping the character of students.

Breast Cancer Risk: Testing to Tailored Screening, Treatment, and Prevention

Joe Selvaggi talks with precision medicine expert, Alva 10 CEO Hannah Mamuszka about how individualized testing can both detect and substantially reduce the incidence of breast cancer, a disease that accounts for more than 40k deaths each year.

Professor Jay Parini on Thirteen Books That Changed America

This week on The Learning Curve, Jay Parini, Professor of English and Creative Writing at Middlebury College, discusses his book Promised Land: Thirteen Books That Changed America, detailing how William Bradford’s Of Plymouth Plantation, The Federalist Papers, and the works of Thoreau, Stowe, Twain, Du Bois, and others have shaped the American mind, character, and identity.

Landlord’s Foreseeable Duty: Who Is Liable When Crime Lands on the Doorstep?

Joe Selvaggi talks with retired Federal Judge Frank Bailey, president of Pioneer Public Interest Law Center, about the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court's decision in Hill-Junious v. UTP Realty, LLC, regarding the limits of liability for a landlord when a murder occurs near her tenant’s location, and the challenges facing small entrepreneurs in high-crime communities.

Colossal Academy’s Shiren Rattigan on Microschools and School Choice

This week on The Learning Curve, guest co-hosts Charlie Chieppo and Kendra Espinoza interview Shiren Rattigan of Colossal Academy, a microschool in Florida. They discuss how Shiren became interested in K-12 education and how and why the COVID-19 pandemic led to her founding a microschool.

Trump’s Trial’s Tribulations: Legal Merits of Four Federal Felony Fraud Indictments

Joe Selvaggi talks with legal scholar and George Mason University professor Ilya Somin about the legal merits of the federal indictments against former President Donald Trump and what is likely to come next in the legal proceedings against him and other defendants in the cases involving the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election.

U.K. Cambridge’s Prof. David Abulafia on Oceans, Seas, & Global Trade

This week on The Learning Curve, Professor David Abulafia from Cambridge University discusses the many roles of the world’s oceans in human history and trade. He focuses on how the Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic oceans, along with the Mediterranean Sea, have spurred the rise of civilizations. He concludes with a reading from his book The Boundless Sea: A Human History of the Oceans.

Black Box Budget: Late, Loaded, and Lacking Transparency

Joe Selvaggi talks with Pioneer Institute’s Senior Fellow in Economic Opportunity Eileen McAnneny about the features and flaws of the recently passed 2024 Massachusetts state budget now waiting for Governor Healey’s approval.

Dr. Peter Wood on Diversity and Anger in America

This week on The Learning Curve, Dr. Peter Wood, president of the National Association of Scholars, discusses the invention of the modern concept of diversity, the history of U.S. Supreme Court rulings on the concepts of diversity and race in college admissions, and how a culture of anger seems to pervade American life.

Sabotaging Strategic Success: How Price Controls Could Imperil U.S. Pharma Industry

Joe Selvaggi talks with Pioneer Institute’s Director of Life Sciences Initiative Dr. Bill Smith about the policies that drove biopharmaceutical company from Europe to the U.S., and how proposed, similar price controls in President Biden’s Fair Prices Act could distort incentives away from innovation and threaten the success of a thriving and vital U.S. industry.

UConn’s Prof. Manisha Sinha on The Slave’s Cause: A History of Abolition

This week on The Learning Curve, UConn Professor Manisha Sinha discusses the influential figures and seminal events that created the abolitionist movement. She describes the legacy of the transatlantic slave trade, Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad, the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, and other key moments in the fight to end slavery.