Dean Philippe Fauchet is elected to the National Academy of Inventors

Vanderbilt School of Engineering Dean Philippe Fauchet has been named a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors.

Philippe Fauchet

Election to NAI Fellow status is a high professional distinction accorded 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 the welfare of society.

Vanderbilt physician Harold (Hal) Moses, Ingram Professor of Cancer Research and director emeritus of Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC), also is a member of the 2016 class of NAI fellows.

Vanderbilt University is ranked No. 53 among the top 100 worldwide universities granted U.S. utility patents in 2015, reported by the National Academy of Inventors and the Intellectual Property Owners Association. The information provided in the list is based on data obtained from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Fauchet is a successful entrepreneur and co-founder of SiMPore Inc., a nanotechnology company that designs and produces membranes and membrane-enabled products based on its silicon nanomembrane technologies. He has more than 30 years of experience in silicon photonics, nanoscience and nanotechnology with silicon quantum dots, biosensors, electroluminescent materials and devices, and optical diagnostics.

His accomplishments include the discovery and use of a new silicon-based nanomembrane material, and the first integration of a visible-light silicon light emitter with silicon-integrated circuits. He holds 10 patents.

In addition to being named in November a fellow of the American Association for the Advancenment of Science, Fauchet also is a fellow of the Optical Society of America, the American Physical Society, the Materials Research Society, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, and the International Society for Optical Engineering (SPIE), and serves on various boards for industrial and governmental entities.

With the election of the 2016 class there are now 757 NAI Fellows, representing 229 research universities and governmental and non-profit research institutes. The 2016 Fellows are named inventors on 5,437 issued U.S. patents, bringing the collective patents held by all NAI Fellows to more than 26,000.

Included among all NAI Fellows are more than 94 presidents and senior leaders of research universities and non-profit research institutes; 376 members of the three branches of the National Academy of Sciences; 28 inductees of the National Inventors Hall of Fame; 45 recipients of the U.S. National Medal of Technology and Innovation and U.S. National Medal of Science; 28 Nobel Laureates, 215 AAAS Fellows; 132 IEEE Fellows; and 116 Fellows of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, among other awards and distinctions.

The 2016 Fellows will be inducted on April 6, 2017, as part of the Sixth Annual Conference of the National Academy of Inventors at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum in Boston. Andrew H. Hirshfeld, U.S. Commissioner for Patents, will provide the keynote address for the induction ceremony. In honor of their outstanding accomplishments, Fellows will be presented with a special trophy, medal, and rosette pin.

Contact:
Brenda Ellis, (615) 343-6314
Brenda.Ellis@Vanderbilt.edu
Twitter @VUEngineering