Chen named fellow of National Academy of Inventors

Junhong Chen, a UWM distinguished professor of mechanical and materials engineering, has been named a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors.

Election to NAI fellow status is accorded to academic inventors whose technology has made a tangible impact on quality of life, economic development and the welfare of society. Fellows are named inventors on U.S. patents and were nominated by their peers.

Junhong Chen

Chen has developed a novel nanoscale material and applies it to produce high-performance sensors, solar cells and nano-electronics. He is the founder and chief scientific officer of NanoAffix Science LLC, a startup company that makes quick and highly accurate sensors.

He also directs the Industry-University Cooperative Research Center on Water Equipment and Policy, supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation. He holds 12 issued or pending patents, along with nine licensing agreements, including four licenses to NanoAffix.

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

The 2016 fellows will be inducted on April 6, 2017, at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum in Boston. The National Academy of Inventors was founded in 2010 to recognize and encourage inventors with patents issued from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

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