David Grewell, chair and professor of industrial and manufacturing engineering has been named a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors. He will be formally recognized at the NAI Fellows Induction Ceremony, scheduled for April 10, 2020, in Phoenix during the organization’s ninth annual meeting.
The NAI Fellows Program highlights academic inventors who have demonstrated innovation in creating or facilitating inventions that have made an impact on the quality of life, economic development and the welfare of society. The honor is considered the highest professional distinction accorded solely to academic inventors.
Grewell’s area of expertise lies in bio-renewable and biodegradable polymers, high-power ultrasonics, micro-fabrication and polymer and metal welding. His portfolio includes 15 U.S. patents. He also founded and directed a NSF Industry/University Cooperative Research Center focused on bioplastics and biocomposites at NDSU, University of Georgia, Iowa State University and Washington State University, with more than 25 industry member companies. He earned his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees at The Ohio State University.
“I am both humbled and honored that my peers would consider me for this award,” Grewell said. “As with any other achievement, this success was only possible because of the help and support of many others, including by my friends at Emerson, exemplified by Don Lovett and Jon Piasecki, as well as the encouragement and support by Jane Schuh, vice president for research and creative activity at NDSU, and my boss, Dean Michael Kessler.”
Grewell also is a fellow of the Society of Plastics Engineers, serves as the United States’ representative for the International Institute of Welding and edited the Plastics and Composite Welding Handbook.
To date, NAI Fellows hold more than 41,500 issued U.S. patents, which have generated more than 11,000 licensed technologies and companies, and created more than 36 million jobs. In addition, $1.6 trillion in revenue has been generated based on NAI Fellow discoveries.
The 2019 fellow class represents 136 research universities and governmental and non-profit research institutes worldwide and collectively hold more than 3,500 issued U.S. patents. Among the 2019 Fellows are six recipients of the U.S. National Medal of Technology and Innovation or U.S. National Medal of Science and four Nobel Laureates, as well as other honors and distinctions.
The complete list of NAI Fellows is available on the NAI website.
The National Academy of Inventors is a member organization comprising U.S. and international universities, and governmental and non-profit research institutes, with more than 4,000 individual inventor members and fellows from over 250 institutions worldwide. It was founded in 2010 to recognize and encourage inventors with patents issued from the United States Patent and Trademark Office, enhance the visibility of academic technology and innovation, encourage the disclosure of intellectual property, educate and mentor students, and translate the inventions of its members to benefit society. The organization publishes the multidisciplinary journal, Technology and Innovation.
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