Two Engineering Professors Named National Academy of Inventors Fellows

Russell Dupuis, Steve W. Chaddick Endowed Chair in Electro-Optics in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Mark Prausnitz, a Regents Professor in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, have been elected as Fellows of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). They join an elite group of just 414 NAI Fellows worldwide.

The designation honors those 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.”

Dupuis has made innovative contributions to metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) and continuous-wave room-temperature quantum-well lasers. He is currently studying the growth of III-V compound semiconductor devices by MOCVD. 

Prausnitz was chosen for the honor based on his revolutionary work in drug delivery technologies, especially microneedles, which are tiny needles (about 400 to 700 microns long) that can be designed as skin patches that provide a simple, painless, and inexpensive way to administer influenza, polio, measles, and other vaccines.

Dupuis and Prausnitz will be honored at the NAI Fellows Luncheon and Induction Ceremony at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena on March 20, 2015. The event is part of the organization’s annual conference.

Other current NAI Fellows from Tech include President G.P. "Bud" Peterson and Biing-Hwang Juang, Motorola Foundation Chair Professor amd Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, who were named fellows in 2012 and 2013, respectively.