Press Release: Innovation Research Interchange Announces 2026 Innovation Excellence Award Winners and 2025 Maurice Holland Award Recipients

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Innovation Research Interchange Announces 2026 Innovation Excellence Award Winners and 2025 Maurice Holland Award Recipients

  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 20, 2026  CONTACT: NAM Media Relations
Washington, D.C. – The Innovation Research Interchange, the innovation management division of the National Association of Manufacturers, announced the winners of the 2026 IRI Innovation Excellence Awards at its recent Innovators Summit in Charlotte. 
These prestigious awards honor individuals and organizations driving innovation, advancing sustainability, strengthening innovative cultures, applying digital technologies, expanding scientific discovery and building collaborative approaches to solving complex industry challenges. The announcement also included the Maurice Holland Award, presented annually to honor the most outstanding article published in the prior year’s volume of IRI’s journal, Research-Technology Management. 
“It was wonderful to see our community come together to celebrate these achievements and recognize the exceptional contributions of this year’s honorees,” said Lee Green, Executive Director of the Innovation Research Interchange. “Their work reflects the very best of innovation, advancing technology, strengthening cultures and creating lasting value for their organizations, industries and society.” 

The 2026 IRI Innovation Excellence Award Winners: 

Innovation Leadership Award—Edwin Freeman, Ph.D., Mars, Inc. 
Edwin Freeman has helped reshape packaging innovation at Mars by advancing a technology platform that supports the company’s transition to fiber-based materials, while positioning packaging as a stronger driver of growth and competitive advantage. With more than 50 patents and published works, he has also built partnerships with universities, startups, consortiums and research labs to advance material science, mentor emerging technical leaders and bridge deep scientific expertise with practical business impact. 

Promising Young Innovator Award—Sumeru Nayak, Ph.D., James Hardie 
Sumeru Nayak has become a driving force behind James Hardie’s digital and AI-driven innovation, developing enterprise-grade generative AI and advanced modeling systems that support manufacturing, product installation and field operations. His work on Installation AI and Value-Stream Mapping AI has helped the company build internal AI capabilities, support hundreds of field users and identify opportunities for major cost savings, workflow efficiencies and new IP value. 

Award for Innovation in Sustainability—Owens Corning: Decarbonization of Glass Fiber Manufacturing with Hydrogen 
Owens Corning advanced an industry-first effort to decarbonize glass fiber manufacturing by replacing natural gas with hydrogen combustion in the glass melting process, one of the largest sources of Scope 1 emissions in reinforcement glass fiber production. Through a multi-year, cross-functional initiative and global partner ecosystem, the team successfully powered a furnace with 50% renewable electricity and 50% hydrogen, achieving a 95% reduction in furnace CO₂ emissions while maintaining glass quality and process performance.
 
Award for Outstanding Innovative Culture—From “Know-It-All” to “Learn-It-All”: DuPont & Qnity’s Lean Innovation Culture Journey 
DuPont and Qnity built a learning-driven innovation culture centered on curiosity, customer insight and evidence-based decision-making, with Lean Innovation now serving as the enterprise standard for early-stage and high-uncertainty growth opportunities. Through more than 300 trained employees, 50+ internal Lean Innovation Coaches, grassroots innovation communities and programs like Dead Projects Day and Innovation TechCon, the organizations have created a psychologically safe environment where teams can test assumptions, learn from failure and make faster, smarter decisions. 

Award for Digital Innovation—Novo Holdings: Redefining Digital Transformation 
Novo Holdings launched a multi-year, organization-wide digital transformation to strengthen its digital foundations, streamline workflows and build AI-enabled capabilities that support investment decision-making, operational efficiency and knowledge sharing. In less than three years, the organization built a dedicated digital team and introduced tools across business intelligence, CRM, automation, data platforms and AI, resulting in stronger adoption, 1,000+ hours saved annually through automation and production-ready AI products embedded into daily investment workflows. 

Award for Scientific Advancement—Niron Magnetics: Iron Nitride Permanent Magnets 
Niron Magnetics has developed rare-earth-free Iron Nitride permanent magnets, turning a long-standing scientific challenge into a commercially viable technology with the potential to strengthen domestic supply chains for electric vehicles, defense, electronics, HVAC, robotics and other critical sectors. By creating a mine-to-magnet process using iron and nitrogen, supported by more than 150 patents and commercial-scale production plans, Niron is advancing a new class of high-performance magnets that offers strong magnetic performance, thermal stability and a more sustainable alternative to traditional rare earth magnets. 

Award for Open Innovation—IPG Photonics, PPG and Whirlpool Corporation: The Heat Is On: Revolutionizing Paint Shops with Laser Technology 
IPG Photonics, PPG and Whirlpool Corporation partnered to develop and validate a laser-diode curing platform designed to replace energy-intensive thermal ovens in industrial powder coating operations. By combining IPG’s laser technology, PPG’s coatings expertise and Whirlpool’s manufacturing environment, the collaboration is advancing a fully electric curing approach with the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, shrink production footprints, improve heat control and accelerate throughput at industrial scale. 

2025 Maurice Holland Award—Tucker Marion, Chelsea Yuan and Mohsen Moghaddam: “Integrating AI into the Front End of New Product Development” 
The 2025 Maurice Holland Award was presented to Tucker Marion, Chelsea Yuan and Mohsen Moghaddam for their Research-Technology Management article, “Integrating AI into the Front End of New Product Development.” Their paper explores how AI can support the fuzzy front end of new product development by synthesizing large-scale customer data, generating and evaluating thousands of design options and helping innovation teams identify overlooked opportunities with greater speed and precision. 
 
For more information on IRI and the Innovation Excellence Awards, including past winners, visit https://iriweb.org/iri-excellence-awards/. 

-National Association for Manufacturer-
The National Association of Manufacturers is the largest manufacturing association in the United States, representing small and large manufacturers in every industrial sector and in all 50 states. Manufacturing employs 13 million men and women, contributes $2.75 trillion to the U.S. economy annually and accounts for 53% of private-sector research and development. The NAM is the powerful voice of the manufacturing community and the leading advocate for a policy agenda that helps manufacturers compete in the global economy and create jobs across the United States. For more information about the NAM or to follow us on Twitter and Facebook, please visit nam.org. 

-Innovation Research Interchange-
The Innovation Research Interchange is the NAM’s innovation management division. The IRI is a community of industry leaders dedicated to accelerating innovation and top-line growth. IRI members drive impactful innovation, develop the research and development roadmaps and make the investments that keep manufacturing at the forefront of advancing technologies and improving the quality of life. For more information, please visit https://iriweb.org.