Karim Budhwani

Bio:

 
Dr. Karim I. Budhwani, CEO-Scientist
 
For more than two decades Dr. Budhwani has combined his passion for innovation, socioeconomic development, and scientific discoveries to shape the impact of innovation and new knowledge (INK) in advancing the economy and the broader human society.

He co-founded CerFlux, Inc. in 2018 to use advances in micro and nanomedicine to #CrushCancer. In addition to being CEO of CerFlux and elixir international, Dr. Budhwani serves as Adj. Associate Professor in the Hugh Kaul Precision Medicine Institute at the UAB School of Medicine and Visiting Scientist in the Dept. of Physics at Coe College. He is the Chair of BIO Alabama and serves on numerous industry and organization boards. He has served as Ambassador of Trade for the State of Alabama and as Chair of IPN which spans over 20 countries on 5 continents. He is well published and his research is well funded, including prestigious grants from the NSF, NCI, and NIH.

He has won numerous awards and honors including Business Journals CEO of the Year, Healthcare Hero, EDPA Alabama Innovation Award, Birmingham B-Metro A-List, and Servant Leadership Vulcan Spear recognizing those who “like Vulcan, stood for the community by serving others.” Among his most cherished honors is the title of #CancerKiller bestowed upon him by friends of his 8-year-old sons.​

For decades of leadership in advancing innovation, industry excellence, service, and his vision for undergirding the new knowledge society, Coe College invited him to deliver the commencement address and conferred upon him an honorary doctorate, Doctor of Liberal Arts (DLA), in 2018. Dr. Budhwani's academic background encompasses a BA from Coe College in Computer Science, Economics, and Business; an MS in Biomedical Engineering from UAB; and a PhD in Materials Science and Engineering (Nanomedicine) jointly from UAB and UA.

Educated in true liberal arts tradition, Dr. Budhwani knows everything about nothing and nothing about everything; a 21st-century polymath. Jokes aside, he has always maintained that the two-fold purpose of acquiring knowledge is to better understand the fabric of existence and to serve others. This principle is his driving force for not only creating new knowledge but also developing and commercializing new paradigms in cancer disease modeling, drug discovery, and personalized medicine applications.