The National Academy of Inventors is coming to Stony Brook University.
The NAI will officially introduce an SBU chapter Monday in a campus installation ceremony that also inaugurates 30 university faculty members into the chapter’s Hall of Fame. Work by all 30 researchers has led directly to inventions in chemistry, computer science, biomedicine and other fields, all patented by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Stony Brook University is among several global institutions earning new NAI chapters, including the State University of New York at Binghamton, the Minnesota-based Mayo Clinic and Institut Pasteur in France.
Chapter President and NAI Fellow Iwao Ojima, a distinguished professor in SBU’s Chemistry Department and director of the university’s Institute of Chemical Biology & Drug Discovery, called the chapter installation a major advance for STEM education (for science, technology, engineering and mathematics) that will “cultivate the next generation of scientist-inventors.”
“This is an innovative movement for the Stony Brook University research enterprise,” Ojima told Innovate LI. “The mission of NAI-SBU Chapter aligns very well with New York State’s plan to construct a strong research hub on Long Island.”
The NAI was founded in 2010 at the University of South Florida to recognize and encourage inventors who earn U.S. patents. The organization aims to enhance the visibility of university-based innovations and promote the societal benefits of technological and academic breakthroughs.
Joining more than 200 other NAI chapter members around the globe will “foster research that leads to academic inventions and entrepreneurship from faculty and students,” while building “a culture of invention across all campus disciplines,” SBU said in a statement.
In addition to Ojima, Long Island’s first NAI chapter will be shepherded by Executive Director Peter Donnelly, the director of SBU’s Office of Technology Licensing and Industry Relations, and three board members: Benjamin Chu, a distinguished professor in Stony Brook’s Department of Chemistry; Benjamin Hsiao, director of SBU’s Center for Advanced Technology in Integrated Electric Energy Systems; and Esther Takeuchi, a distinguished professor of chemistry and engineering and the chief scientist at Brookhaven National Laboratory.
The first inductees into the NAI-SBU Chapter Hall of Fame include:
- Maria Badalamente, Department of Orthopedics
- Peter Brink, Department of Physiology and Biophysics
- Wen-Tin Chen, Department of Medicine
- Richard Clark, Department of Dermatology
- Ira Cohen, Department of Physiology and Biophysics
- Lorne Golub, Department of Oral Biology and Pathology
- Vera Gorfinkel, Department of Electrical Engineering
- Palagia-Irene Gouma, Department of Materials Science and Engineering
- Yusuf Hannun, Department of Medicine and Cancer Center
- Dhadwal Harbans, Department of Electrical Engineering
- Herbert Herman, Department of Materials Science and Engineering
- Francis Johnson, Department of Pharmacological Sciences, Department of Chemistry
- Arie Kaufman, Department of Computer Sciences
- Kenneth Kaushansky, Department of Medicine
- Israel Kleinberg, Department of Oral Biology and Pathology
- Jon Longtin, Department of Mechanical Engineering
- Benjamin Luft, Department of Medicine
- Serge Luryi, Department of Electrical Engineering
- Lucy Palmer, Department of Medicine
- Kathlyn Parker, Department of Chemistry
- Miriam Rafailovich, Department of Materials Science and Engineering
- Jahangir Rasteger, Department of Mechanical Engineering
- Clinton Rubin, Department of Biomedical Engineering
- Maria Ryan, Department of Oral Biology and Pathology
- Nicole Sampson, Department of Chemistry
- Simon Sanford, Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Department of Pathology
- Sanjay Sampath, Department of Material and Science Engineering
- Steven Skiena, Department of Computer Sciences
- Gerard Smaldone, Department of Medicine
- Stanislaus Wong, Department of Chemistry
Monday’s ceremony – including a dinner reception, remarks by Karen Burg of the NAI Board of Directors and SBU President Samuel Stanley and a keynote lecture by Ojima – is scheduled to begin at 6 pm at the university’s Student Activity Center.
