The “Hall of Fame” event honors individuals with Utah ties who have made key contributions to the information technology and life science industries through new technology, innovation and leadership. These contributions have resulted in job growth, commercialization of technology and increased growth and development of the nation’s technology sector and economy. The UTC welcomes members of Utah’s technology industries, as well as business and community leaders, to join in honoring this year’s inductees.

Dr. Jim Kajiya
An Academy Award winner, Jim Kajiya began his career as a hardware designer. He worked for Quad Eight Electronics where he designed automated mix-down equipment and SMPTE time-code synchronizers. He then joined Evans and Sutherland as the project engineer for its frame buffer – the first commercially-available random access frame buffer.

Dr. Kajiya received his doctorate in computer science from the University of Utah and spent 15 years at the California Institute of Technology, working as an assistant and associate professor of computer science. He has published many papers on mathematical models for computer vision, high-level programming languages and mathematical logic for computer science. Dr. Kajiya spent several years as the senior researcher at Microsoft Research and is currently a Distinguished Engineer & General Manager of Microsoft Research. His recent work has focused on very high-quality computer graphics, graphic hardware design and developing programming languages.

In 1991, he received the SIGGRAPH Technical Achievement Award and was awarded an Academy Award (technical certificate) in 1997. Dr. Kajiya has served on the external advisory board of the Defense Mapping Agency, the National Neurocircuitry Database Committee for the National Academy of Sciences and Institute of Medicine, as well as the SIGGRAPH executive committee

Dr. Dinesh Patel
Dinesh Patel, a managing director and founding partner of vSpring Capital, is considered by many to be the father of biotechnology and pharmaceuticals in the Mountain West region. Founder, chairman and CEO of Ashni Naturaceuticals, a company focused on development and marketing of naturaceutical products, Patel has served as chairman and CEO of TheraTech, a biotechnology company which he took public and sold for $350 million to Watson Pharmaceuticals. He also served as CEO and co-founder of Salus Therapeutics, a biotech firm developing nucleic acid-based therapeutics, which was sold to Genta for $30 million.

Recently selected as the first Utah recipient of the prestigious Ellis Island Medal, Dr. Patel has been the recipient of numerous other awards including the Utah Asian Chamber of Commerce Outstanding Business Award, U.S. Small Business Administration’s Business Achiever Award, the Utah Scientific Technology and Development Pioneer of Progress Award, the Governor’s Medal for Science and Technology, Utah Engineering Experiment Station Pathfinder Award and the Mountain West Venture Group’s “Entrepreneur of the Year” award. He serves on various non-profit boards.

Dr. Patel received his bachelor’s degree in Pharmacy at Gujarat University in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. He went on to receive his master’s degree from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and his Ph.D. in Physical Pharmacy from the University of Michigan.

Utah Technology Council’s “Hall of Fame” celebration begins with a networking reception at 6:00 p.m., followed by dinner starting at 7:00 p.m. For information on sponsorships and tables, contact Mark Lehnhof at (801) 568-3500 or mark@utahtechcouncil.org. Proceeds will help foster the growth of Utah’s technology community.

About UTC
As the premier professional organization for Utah’s more than 3,700 technology companies, the Utah Technology Council, the power of UITA and ULSA, exists to form closer relationships with industry and community leaders, develop superior management talent, sharpen professional skills and help gain access to capital. For more information on UTC, please visit http://www.utahtechcouncil.org.

UTC Contact:
Judy Young
T) 801-568-3500
jyoung@utahtechcouncil.org

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