UPitt Professor Wagner Elected Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors
William R. Wagner, PhD, Professor of Surgery, Bioengineering & Chemical Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) and Deputy Director of the NSF-funded Engineering Research Center (ERC) for Revolutionizing Metallic Biomaterials (RMB), has achieved the high honor of election to Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). Pitt is a partner organization in the ERC-RMB, which is headquartered at North Carolina A&T University.
Academic inventors and innovators elected to the rank of NAI Fellow status have been nominated by their peers for outstanding contributions to innovation in areas such as patents and licensing, innovative discovery and technology, significant impact on society, and support and enhancement of innovation. Dr. Wagner also serves as Director of the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine, where his research laboratory focuses on applying engineering principles to developing technologies that will improve the diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular disease. His research has generated numerous patents and patent filings that have resulted in licensing activity, the formation of a company that has reached clinical trials, and University of Pittsburgh Innovator Awards in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2014.
NAI Fellow status is the highest professional distinction accorded solely 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.
Dr. Wagner is in august company. The NAI Fellows Program today has 912 Fellows worldwide representing more than 250 prestigious universities and governmental and non-profit research institutes. Collectively, the Fellows hold more than 32,000 issued U.S. patents, which have generated over 9,400 licensed technologies and companies, and created more than 1.3 million jobs. In addition, over $137 billion in revenue has been generated based on NAI Fellow discoveries.
With the induction of the 2017 class, there are now more than 100 presidents and senior leaders of research universities and non-profit research institutes, 439 members of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; 36 inductees of the National Inventors Hall of Fame, 52 recipients of the U.S. National Medal of Technology and Innovation and U.S. National Medal of Science, 29 Nobel Laureates, 3 Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering recipients, 261 AAAS Fellows, 168 IEEE Fellows, and 142 Fellows of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, among other awards and distinctions.
