John L. Volakis and Naphtali Rishe elected to the rank of National Academy of Inventors Fellow

December 10, 2020 at 9:20am

John L. Volakis, dean of the College of Engineering and Computing and professor of electrical and computer engineering, and Naphtali Rishe, professor of the School of Computing and Information Sciences, have been elected to the highly distinguished rank of National Academy of Inventors (NAI) Fellow by the 2020 NAI Fellows Selection Committee and Board of Directors.

Volakis and Rishe join FIU’s six NAI Fellows: Shekhar Bhansali, Provost and Executive Vice President Kenneth G. Furton, S.S. Iyengar, Ranu Jung, William Murphy, and Madhavan Nair.

Volakis and Rishe are being inducted 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 the welfare of society.

The 2020 Fellow class represents 115 research universities and governmental and nonprofit research institutes worldwide. They collectively hold more than 4,700 issued U.S. patents. Among the 2020 Fellows are recipients of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and Nobel Prize, as well as other honors and distinctions. Their collective body of research covers a range of scientific disciplines, including biomedical engineering, computer engineering, materials science and physics.

With the election of the 2020 class, there are now 1,403 NAI Fellows worldwide, representing more than 250 prestigious universities and governmental and nonprofit research institutes. To date, NAI Fellows hold more than 42,700 issued U.S. patents, which have generated more than 13,000 licensed technologies and companies, and created more than 36 million jobs. In addition, more than $2.2 trillion in revenue has been generated based on NAI Fellow discoveries.

A Fellows induction ceremony will be held on June 7-9, 2021, in Tampa, Florida.