John Blaho

John Blaho, Ph.D. is the CUNY Director for Industrial-Academic Research. He has been responsible for creating/maintaining productive Sponsored Research Projects between Industrial entities and CUNY research faculty, and is currently working to increase the amount of faculty entrepreneurial activities. Dr. Blaho was trained as a chemical engineer, received his Ph.D. in biochemistry, and was the PI of an academic research lab at the University of Chicago and the Mount Sinai School of Medicine for over 25 years.

Subsequently, he served a CSO function at a biotech company in Princeton, NJ. Since joining CUNY, he has led the creation of two new NSF IUCRC centers at the City College of CUNY and has served as the Industrial Mentor for 3 CUNY NSF Innovation Corps (I-Corps) teams – all three subsequently formed NYS companies and are currently supported by NSF SBIR/STTR grants. Dr. Blaho led the creation of and serves as the Training Director and coPI of the NYC Regional Innovation NSF I-Corps Node (NYCRIN). He is also the lead of the CUNY Innovation Hot Spot for the NYC Regional Economic Development Council of Empire State Development.