With the U.S. going through one of its anti-immigration spasms, the University City Science Center last Thursday, at its Nucleus 2017 fund-raiser, named six immigrant entrepreneurs, past and present, to the third yearly list for its Innovators Walk of Fame:
Éleuthère Irénée du Pont: The France-born chemist founded the DuPont Co. on the Brandywine in 1802. It merged with Dow Chemical Sept. 1 after inventing “Nylon, Teflon, Corian, and Kevlar,” and much more that “transformed safety, fashion, and agriculture,” and war.
Hubert J.P. Schoemaker: Founder of Centocor (1979), now part of Johnson & Johnson. Netherlands-born Schoemaker “put Philly on map as a biotech center,” fighting psoriasis, Chron’s, and other autoimmune diseases, and “generously” backing entrepreneurs.
Osagie Imasogie: The Nigeria native “is leaving a deep mark” in Philadelphia as a founder of PIPV (Phoenix) Capital, Ception Therapeutics, Trigenesis, GlaxoSmithKline Ventures, executive chair of Iroko Pharmaceuticals and chair of iCeutica Inc.
Krishna Singh: Indian-born chief of Holtec International and its new, 50-acre Camden campus (at an ex-shipyard), Singh supplies nuclear plants and funded the nanotechnology center at Penn.
Michael Solomonov: Israeli-born restaurateur and Beard Foundation’s Outstanding Chef gave the city Zahav, Federal Donuts, Broad Street Ministry’s Rooster Soup, and “creative flair with a humanitarian ethic.”
Blanka Zizka: A Cold War refugee from Czechoslovakia, with her partner Jiri, pulled Philadelphia’s old stage tradition into “contemporary international repertory” at Wilma Theater.
