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April 5, 2024
EVANSTON, Ill. --- Northwestern University scientists Tobin J. Marks and Antonio F. Facchetti have been named 2015 Fellows of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI), the academy announced today.
Marks is the Vladimir N. Ipatieff Professor of Chemistry in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and a professor of materials science and engineering in the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science. Facchetti is an adjunct professor of chemistry in Weinberg.
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.
Marks and Facchetti will be inducted April 15 as part of the Fifth Annual Conference of the National Academy of Inventors to be held at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in Alexandria, Virginia. USPTO Commissioner for Patents Andrew Hirshfeld will provide the keynote address for the induction ceremony.
The 168 named today bring the total number of NAI Fellows to 582, representing more than 190 prestigious research universities and governmental and nonprofit research institutions.
Tobin Marks
Marks has made important contributions to invention and innovation in catalytic olefin polymerization and materials for printed electronics. He holds 233 U.S. patents that have been licensed to several major corporations and is a co-founder of the printed electronics startup Polyera Corp. Marks has published 1,195 peer-reviewed articles, books and book chapters and serves on the editorial boards of 10 scientific journals.
He is the recipient of the U.S. National Medal of Science, the Dreyfus Prize in Chemical Science, the Prince of Asturias Science and Technology Prize, the National Academy of Sciences Award in Chemical Science, and 105 other awards and lectureships. Marks is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the German and Indian Academies of Sciences.
Antonio Facchetti
Facchetti has made important contributions to the chemistry and engineering of unconventional organic, inorganic and hybrid opto-electronic materials and devices. He is a co-founder and chief scientific officer of Polyera Corp. and scientific advisor of Raynergy Teck. Facchetti is the recipient of the American Chemical Society Award for Creative Invention, the Italian Chemical Society Research Prize, the team IDTechEx Printed Electronics Europe Award and the corporate Flextech Award.
He was selected among Thomson Reuters’ “Top 100 Materials Scientists of the Past Decade (2000-2010)” and recognized as a Highly Cited Scientist. Facchetti holds more than 80 U.S. patents and more than 40 international patents that have been licensed to five companies. He is the author of more than 350 articles, one book and 11 book chapters and serves as editor for six peer-reviewed journals. Facchetti is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement for Science, the Materials Research Society, the Kavli Foundation and the Royal Society of Chemistry.
The academic inventors and innovators elected to the rank of NAI Fellow are named inventors on U.S. patents and were 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.
