George Mason To Celebrate Renamed Innovation Center

22nd Century Technologies, Inc. will join George Mason University on October 29 to celebrate the newly named Anil and Anupama Sharma Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. The event at Fuse at Mason Square in Arlington follows an October 5 ribbon-cutting that formally unveiled the Center on George Mason’s Fairfax campus. Founder and CEO Anil Sharma and his wife, Anupama Sharma, made a personal gift intended to expand opportunities for students and aspiring founders. Established in 2014, the Center supports students as they develop ideas, gain practical experience, and build new ventures.

Support For Student Founders

The naming builds on a longstanding relationship among Sharma, 22nd Century Technologies, and George Mason. Sharma serves on the President’s Innovation Advisory Council and the George Mason University Foundation Board of Trustees, while the company has supported the Center’s Patriot Pitch Competition over multiple years.

The Sharmas envision a Center where students can access mentorship, technology, talent, connections, and capital to turn classroom or laboratory ideas into viable businesses.

“Putting our name on this Center is not about the name. It is about putting our values into it – education, innovation, entrepreneurship, service, and creating opportunity for others. We want this Center to help build a local Silicon Valley right here in Northern Virginia, where a student can walk in with an idea, get mentorship, technology, access to the ecosystem, and capital, and turn that idea into a real business. If this Center helps students build companies, create jobs, and then create opportunities for others, that would be the greatest achievement and honor for us.”

October Event At Fuse

The October 5 ribbon-cutting brought together university, government, and business leaders, including U.S. Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, George Mason University President Gregory Washington, Costello College of Business Dean Ajay Vinzé, and George Mason Board of Visitors rector Sumeet Shrivastava.

The October 29 celebration will take place at Fuse at Mason Square, George Mason’s innovation hub designed to connect university researchers and students with industry, government, founders, and other partners.

Northern Virginia Innovation

Sharma came to the United States from India in 1997 and founded 22nd Century Technologies later that year. The company has grown into a national IT systems integrator with more than 6,000 professionals. The Center aims to bring together academia, industry, government, investors, and founders while helping advances in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, quantum technologies, biotechnology, and other emerging fields move into real-world applications.