Inventor Vodyanoy wins Creative Research Award

Vitaly Vodyanoy, a professor in the Department of Anatomy, Physiology and Pharmacology in Auburn University’s College of Veterinary Medicine, is the 2005 recipient of the AU Creative Research Award, AU Vice President for Research Michael Moriarty announced.

Vodyanoy is being honored with a reception on Wednesday, May 25, from 4:30-6 p.m. at the Ariccia lounge in the Auburn University Hotel and Dixon Conference Center.

The Creative Research Award carries a $5,000 cash prize and plaque. It was established by the Office of the Vice President for Research in 1998 to recognize exceptional research and scholarly accomplishments.

Nominees are chosen by their peers and colleagues, and winners are selected by a committee composed of one senior faculty member from each of AU’s colleges and schools, a representative of AU’s research institutes and former Creative Research Award recipients.

“I can think of no other Auburn researcher or scholar more deserving of this year’s award,” Moriarty said.

Vodyanoy, who also directs the Biosensor Laboratory at the veterinary college, is the inventor of an ultra resolution imaging microscope and a group of other technologies known as molecular recognition.

These inventions comprise the genesis of Aetos Technologies Inc., a technology development company that formed in October 2003 for the express purpose of commercializing Vodyanoy’s molecular recognition and other university research developments.

A native of Russia, Vodyanoy earned a doctorate in biophysics from the Agrophysical Research Institute in Leningrad.

His primary research interests are in sensory physiology, receptors, biosensors and optics.

Vodyanoy joined the AU faculty in 1989 and has served as the major professor on numerous doctoral and master’s committees while conducting his own expansive research program.

“I have lived in the U.S. for 26 years and worked at New York University, the University of California-Irvine and here at Auburn,” Vodyanoy said. “Only at Auburn have I found my real academic home.”

Previous recipients of the Creative Research Award include Krystyna Kuperburg, Department of Mathematics and Statistics; Claude Boyd, Department of Fisheries and Allied Aquacultures; James Hansen, Department of History; Greg Petitt, Department of Human Development and Family Studies; Malcolm Crocker, Department of Mechanical Engineering; Paula Backscheider, Department of English; David Roland, Department of Poultry Science; and Bruce Tatarchuk, Department of Chemical Engineering.