Johns Hopkins University hosted the NSF Trailblazer Workshop, a two‑day, invitation‑only convening held April 2–3, 2026, bringing together the inaugural cohorts of NSF Trailblazer Engineering Impact Award recipients alongside selected trainees, industry leaders, and policy stakeholders. The workshop marks the first gathering of Trailblazer awardees and serves as a foundational event for launching the program’s research community.
The Trailblazer Engineering Impact Award is a recently launched NSF initiative designed to support bold, unconventional engineering research with the potential to transform fields or address major societal challenges. By explicitly encouraging high‑risk, high‑reward ideas that may not yet align with traditional funding mechanisms, the program aims to catalyze new directions in engineering and technology.
Commissioned by National Science Foundation, the workshop was organized by Associate Professor Yun Chen, the inaugural recipient of the NSF Trailblazer Award and previous instructor for Fabrication of Biomaterials, Engineering Tissues, and Food – 535.693 in the Engineering for Professionals Mechanical Engineering program, who served as conference chair. Larry Nagahara, vice dean of research at the Whiting School of Engineering, led a cross‑sector industry panel that brought together perspectives from industry and government. The success of the workshop was also made possible by the dedicated efforts of the Department of Mechanical Engineering staff.
The workshop program featured research talks by Trailblazer principal investigators, presentations by graduate students and postdoctoral trainees, industry panel presentations from Sanofi, IonQ, ASTM and the Maryland Department of Commerce, a plenary lecture on responsible innovation, delivered by the Head of NSF Engineering Directorate, Don Millard, and collaborative sessions aimed at identifying emerging research frontiers.
Through this workshop, NSF seeks to foster dialogue among researchers pursuing some of the most innovative NSF‑funded work and leaders from industry and government, while promoting responsible and societally grounded innovation.
Chen taught Fabrication of Biomaterials, Engineering Tissues, and Food (535.693) in the fall of 2025.