JILA Fellow, and Nobel Laureate, John "Jan" Hall.
Today JILA Fellow John “Jan” Hall was named a 2018 Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI).
Inventors of U.S. patents are nominated to NAI fellowship by their peers. To be named a NAI fellow is to receive recognition for outstanding inventions that have had a tangible impact on quality of life, economic development and the welfare of society.
The NAI named 148 fellows in 2018, representing research universities and government and non-profit research institutes. Collectively, the 2018 fellows hold nearly 4,000 issued U.S. patents.
Hall was elected for his innovative work on laser-based precision spectroscopy. Hall has at least 11 issued U.S. patents, including “An external laser frequency stabilizer,” “Comb generating optical cavity that includes an optical amplifier and an optical modulator,” and “Mode-locked pulsed laser system and method.” Hall’s inventions helped usher physics research to a new level of precision, thus improving everyday technologies from time-keeping to GPS satellites.
Hall was not the only CU Boulder research community member to be elected to NAI 2018 Fellowship. Alan Weimer, the H.T. Sears Memorial professor of chemical and biological engineering, was also named a 2018 NAI Fellow today. Weimer, whose research interests include particular surface modification, solar-thermal processing and nano-energy, is an inventor of over 24 issued and eight pending U.S. patents.
The 2018 NAI Fellows will be highlighted with a full-page announcement in the 25 Jan 2019 issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education and in upcoming isssues of Technology & Innovation.
Five other CU Boulder faculty have been elected to the NAI: Distinguished Professor Kristi Anseth of chemical and biological engineering in 2015; Distinguished Professor Christopher Bowman of chemical and biological engineering in 2016; Distinguished Professor Leslie Leinwand of molecular, cellular and developmental biology and chief scientific officer for the BioFrontiers Institute in 2016; Distinguished Professor Marvin Caruthers of chemistry and biochemistry in 2017; and Professor Larry Gold of the molecular, cellular and developmental biology in 2017.
The National Academy of Inventors is a member organization comprising U.S. and international universities, and governmental and non-profit research institutes, with over 4,000 individual inventor members and Fellows spanning more than 250 institutions worldwide.
Parts of this News Report were borrowed from CU Boulder Today
The Physics Frontiers Centers (PFC) program supports university-based centers and institutes where the collective efforts of a larger group of individuals can enable transformational advances in the most promising research areas. The program is designed to foster major breakthroughs at the intellectual frontiers of physics by providing needed resources such as combinations of talents, skills, disciplines, and/or specialized infrastructure, not usually available to individual investigators or small groups, in an environment in which the collective efforts of the larger group can be shown to be seminal to promoting significant progress in the science and the education of students. PFCs also include creative, substantive activities aimed at enhancing education, broadening participation of traditionally underrepresented groups, and outreach to the scientific community and general public.