The National Academy of Inventors (NAI) elected Howard E. Katz and Russell Taylor to its 2017 class of fellows, a prestigious distinction reserved for academic inventors who have benefited people and society.
The two Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering faculty members bring the total number of Johns Hopkins affiliates to receive this recognition to 11. The NAI began distributing these awards in 2012 and currently has 912 NAI Fellows from over 250 research universities and governmental and nonprofit research institutes.
Howard Katz
Katz, a professor in the Department of Materials Science and engineering and member of the Institute for NanoBioTechnology, chaired the Department of Materials Science from 2008 to 2014.
Among many other awards and recognition, Katz has been named an American Chemical Society Fellow in 2010 and was selected a Materials Research Society Fellow in 2008. His research interests include nanomaterials and optoelectronic and magnetic materials.
Russell Taylor
Widely considered the father of medical robotics, Taylor is the John C. Malone Professor in the Department of Computer Science, director of the Laboratory for Computational Sensing and Robotics and a member of the Johns Hopkins Malone Center for Engineering in Healthcare.
In addition to receiving numerous awards and honors, Taylor has authored more than 325 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters.
The 2017 Class
The work of the 155 NAI Fellows selected as part of the 2017 class has resulted in nearly 6,000 issued U.S. patents and discoveries. In total, the six classes of NAI Fellows are responsible for more than 32,000 patents.
“Election to NAI Fellow status is the highest professional accolade bestowed to academic inventors who have demonstrated a prolific spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on quality of life, economic development and welfare of society,” according to the NAI. “NAI Fellows have generated more than 9,400 licensed technologies and companies and created more than 1.3 million jobs, with over $137 billion in revenue generated based on their discoveries.”
The nine other NAI Fellows from The Johns Hopkins University are:
2012
Solomon H. Snyder, Professor of Neuroscience
2013
James West, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Mechanical Engineering
2014
Jennifer Elisseeff, Director of the Translational Tissue Engineering Center, Professor of Ophthalmology
Justin Hanes, Director of the Center for Nanomedicine, Professor of Ophthalmology
2015
Kenneth Kinzler, Director of the Ludwig Center at Johns Hopkins University, Professor of Oncology
Se-Jin Lee, The Michael and Ann Hankin and Partners of Brown Advisory Professor in Scientific Innovation, Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics
Bert Vogelstein, Professor of Oncology
2016
Henry Halperin, Co-director of the Johns Hopkins Imaging Institute of Excellence, Professor of Medicine
David Sidransky, Director of Head and Neck Cancer Research, Professor of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery