Faculty Honored as National Academy of Inventors Fellows

Three faculty from Georgia Tech have been chosen as 2022 National Academy of Inventors (NAI) Fellows, the highest professional distinction for academic inventors.

The new class of fellows includes Adegboyega "Yomi" Oyelere of the College of Sciences, along with Madhavan Swaminathan and Zhong Lin Wang of the College of Engineering.

They are among approximately 150 honorees from research universities and governmental and non-profit institutions around the world. They were chosen by the NAI for demonstrating “a highly prolific spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on the quality of life, economic development, and welfare of society.”

Oyelere is a professor in the School of Chemistry & Biochemistry. His research spans bioorganic chemistry, biochemistry, and drug design with interrelated work across RNA-small molecule interaction, targeted histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibition, and design and synthesis of novel bioconjugates for molecular delivery applications.

Oyelere's lab has worked to develop a therapeutic strategy for cancer treatment to inhibit enzymes called histone deacetylases, which play an important role in the regulation of gene expression. He has also worked on the design of histone deacetylase inhibitors that can be taken up by the hormones expressed on the surface of hormone-positive breast cancer cells to stop the cells from dividing. In 2018, he received Georgia Tech’s Outstanding Undergraduate Mentor Senior Faculty Award. 

Swaminathan is the John Pippin Chair in Microsystems Packaging & Electromagnetics in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and has a joint appointment in the School of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE). He directs the 3D Systems Packaging Research Center at Georgia Tech. He is an internationally recognized researcher in electronics packaging, an area that is expected to fuel the semiconductor industry over the next decade.

Swaminathan holds 31 patents and is the founder and co-founder of two start-up companies (E-System Design and Jacket Micro Devices).

Wang is the Regents’ Professor and Hightower Chair Emeritus in MSE. His discovery and breakthroughs in developing nanogenerators established the principle and technological roadmap for harvesting mechanical energy from environment and biological systems for powering mobile sensors. 

Wang’s work also p­ioneered the field of self-powered sensors, and he coined piezotronics and piezo-phototronics for the third-generation semiconductors. Wang holds 70 U.S. and foreign patents.

Georgia Tech now has 16 NAI Fellows. The new cohort will be inducted at the NAI Fellows Induction Ceremony in July.