Two professors from Carnegie Mellon University have been named as part of the 2021 fellowship class to the National Academy of Inventors, the country's highest professional distinction for inventors in academia. The academy also named two University of Pittsburgh professors to this year's class.
CMU's Marcel Bruchez and Larry Pileggi are two of 164 members featured in this year's class, a group of people who come from 116 research universities and collectively hold over 4,800 issued U.S. patents. In total, NAI fellows, which have accrued since the organization's founding in 2015, hold 48,000 patents.
A professor in CMU's Departments of Biological Sciences and Chemistry and the director of the Molecular Biosensor and Imaging Center at CMU's Mellon College of Science, Bruchez is celebrated by being named to this year's fellowship for his creation of a suite of nanotechnology tools capable of allowing dynamic image capturing of living cells at the molecular level. His invention has been used by researchers around the world to investigate how cells and proteins change and interact, both in vivo and in real-time. He's also the founder and chief technology officer of Sharp Therapeutics, a company that provides tools for the discovery of small molecules capable of restoring the activity of disease mutant proteins or for the development of new genetic disease treatments. Bruchez holds 34 patents and has three pending approval.
A Tanoto Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at CMU, Pileggi has conducted research that involved modeling, design and design methodologies for integrated systems as well as the modeling, simulation and optimization of electrical power systems. He co-founded Fabbrix, Extreme DA and Pearl Street Technologies and also held positions at Westinghouse Research and Development and the University of Texas at Austin. He holds 40 patents.
