Cunningham elected Charter Fellow of National Academy of Inventors

ECE Professor Brian T Cunningham has been elected a 2013 Charter Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI).

Cunningham has a joint appointment in the Department of Bioengineering, director of the Micro and Nanotechnology Laboratory and is affiliated with the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology. He holds more than 75 patents.

"Election to NAI Fellow status is a high professional distinction accorded to academic inventors who have demonstrated a highly prolific spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on quality of life, economic development, and the welfare of society,” the society said in a news release.

Collectively, the 143 new Fellows hold more than 5,600 U.S. patents.

They will be inducted by Deputy U.S. Commissioner for Patents Andrew Faile of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Induction is scheduled for March 7 during the third annual Conference of the National Academy of Inventors at the USPTO headquarters in Alexandria, Va.

Fellows will be presented with a special trophy and a rosette pin.  A plaque listing the name and institution of each NAI Fellow will be on permanent display at the USPTO.

"The USPTO and the NAI work closely together to promote innovation and support inventors," said Margaret A. “Peggy” Focarino, U.S. Commissioner for Patents in the NAI’s release. "The NAI Fellows program is a great opportunity to honor our nation's outstanding inventors."

The academic inventors and innovators elected to the rank of NAI Fellow are named inventors on U.S. patents and were nominated by their peers for outstanding contributions to innovation in areas such as patents and licensing, innovative discovery and technology, significant impact on society, and support and enhancement of innovation.

Professor John A Rogers was also elected a 2013 Charter Fellow of NAI. Rogers’ primary appointment is the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Illinois, and he's affiliated with ECE ILLINOIS.