The National Academy of Inventors (NAI) has named 148 renowned academic inventors to NAI Fellow status for 2018. Among these are three faculty members from Texas A&M University: Mark A. Barteau, M. Cynthia Hipwell and Roderic Pettigrew. They will be inducted at the Space Center Houston in April at the Eighth Annual Meeting of the NAI.
Election to NAI Fellow status is the highest professional distinction accorded to academic inventors who have demonstrated a prolific spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact of quality of life, economic development and the welfare of society.
“The recognition by NAI for the outstanding advancements these researchers have made is a tribute to both their work and the priority Texas A&M University places on making meaningful impacts,” said Texas A&M University Provost and Executive Vice President Carol A. Fierke. “We congratulate these stellar innovators and celebrate their ongoing contributions to improving the human condition across the globe.”
Barteau serves as Texas A&M’s vice president for research. He holds the Halliburton Chair in Engineering, is a professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering, College of Engineering and a professor in the Department of Chemistry, College of Science. Barteau is a member of the National Academy of Engineering. His research focuses on chemical reactions at solid surfaces and their applications in heterogeneous catalysis and energy processes.
Hipwell is a TEES Eminent Professor in the J. Mike Walker ’66 Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering. She is a member of the National Academy of Engineering. Hipwell’s research interests include sensors, actuators, materials and metrology based upon nanoscale and surface phenomena; nanoscale energy transport and tribology of devices; advanced additive manufacturing (two component mixture printing, voxel level material property control and mechanical bioprinting enablers); and innovation business processes, technology and technology platforms to speed the innovation process.
Pettigrew is chief executive officer of Engineering Health (EnHealth) and executive dean for the Engineering Medicine (EnMed) program, an innovative partnership between Texas A&M’s College of Medicine and College of Engineering and the Houston Methodist Hospital. He holds the Robert A. Welch Chair in Chemistry and is an elected member to both the National Academy of Medicine and the National Academy of Engineering. Pettigrew is a recognized leader in biomedical imaging and bioengineering and is well-known for pioneering four-dimensional imaging of the cardiovascular system using magnetic resonance imaging.
With the election of the 2018 class, there are now over 1,000 NAI Fellows, representing more than 250 research universities and government and non-profit research institutes. The 2018 Fellows are named inventors on nearly 4,000 issued U.S. patents, bringing the collective patents held by all NAI Fellows to more than 35,000 issued U.S. patents.
About Research at Texas A&M University: As one of the world’s leading research institutions, Texas A&M is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery, including that of science and technology. Research conducted at Texas A&M represented annual expenditures of more than $905.4 million in fiscal year 2017, ranking Texas A&M in the top 20 of the National Science Foundation’s Higher Education Research and Development survey (2017). Texas A&M’s research creates new knowledge that provides basic, fundamental and applied contributions resulting, in many cases, in economic benefits to the state, nation and world. To learn more, visit http://research.tamu.edu.
Media contact: Susan Wolff, (979) 847-9365, s-wolff@tamu.edu.
