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U-M ChE’s Joerg Lahann, the Wolfgang Pauli Collegiate Professor of Chemical Engineering, has been elected as a National Academy of Inventors (NAI) fellow in honor of his contributions to invention, innovative discovery, significant impacts on society and enhancement of innovation.
Joerg Lahann, the Wolfgang Pauli Collegiate Professor of Chemical Engineering, has been elected as an NAI Fellow. The National Academy of Inventors (NAI) elects fellows annually to honor individual contributions to invention, innovative discovery, significant impacts on society and enhancement of innovation. Lahann will be officially inducted as an NAI Fellow at the NAI Annual Meeting in Phoenix, Arizona in June 2022.
Being elected as an NAI Fellow is considered the highest professional distinction presented solely to academic inventors. The NAI Fellows Program aims to recognize academic inventors whose inventions have a discernible impact on quality of life, economic development, and societal welfare. Currently, there are over 1,400 NAI Fellows and collectively they own over 42,700 patents and have helped create over 1 million jobs and over $3 trillion in revenue.
To be chosen as an NAI Fellow, recipients must be affiliated with an academic institution and be nominated by another party. Nominees must be seen as pioneers within their field, have reached professional maturity, and have at least one registered patent with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The five criteria considered for election are impact on society, patents and licensing, career tenure, facilitation and nurturing, and service to the academy.
Joerg Lahann has been with U-M ChE since joining as an assistant professor in 2003. He was promoted to associate professor in 2008 and professor in 2012. In 2019 he was named the Wolfgang Pauli Collegiate Professor of Chemical Engineering and is currently the director of the U-M Biointerfaces Institute and holds professor appointments in the Biomedical Engineering, Macromolecular Science and Engineering, and Materials Science and Engineering departments.
Lahann has 24 US patents to his name as well as a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award. His research broadly focuses on surface engineering, with recent endeavors including synthetic protein nanoparticles for non-viral gene therapy and a novel class of vapor-based polymers.
The NAI is an organization dedicated to the recognition of inventors with U.S. patents, the encouragement of innovative students, and using inventions to benefit society. It was founded in 2010 and today has over 250 university and non-profit members worldwide.
