Biomedical engineering professor working on impactful innovations in medical imaging named National Academy of Inventors Senior Member

FIU Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering Anuradha Godavarty, whose research and innovations have significantly advanced optical imaging technologies, has been named to the National Academy of Inventors (NAI) Senior Members.

NAI Senior Members are faculty, scientists and administrators who have successfully patented, licensed and commercialized technologies that have positively impacted society. They are also committed to advancing the inventive culture at their institutions, as well as mentoring and educating the next generation of inventors.

“Medical imaging is critical to the diagnosis and treatment of a myriad of ailments,” said FIU Provost and Executive Vice President Kenneth G. Furton, who is an NAI Fellow. “Dr. Godavarty has not only nurtured FIU’s innovative culture, but her pioneering research and inventions are helping clinicians across specialties provide patients with comprehensive care designed to deliver better outcomes.”

As a principal investigator in FIU’s Optical Imaging Laboratory (OIL), Godavarty oversees the development and enhancement of low-cost, hand-held optical imaging technologies and computational analysis. These technologies are currently focused on wound care monitoring - related to diabetic foot ulcers, venous leg ulcers and arterial ulcers - and radiation-induced dermatitis in breast cancer and other cancer patients. Godavarty has six issued and one pending U.S. patents. She also has two issued and five pending global patents. Her patents are related to the design and development of near-infrared based optical imaging devices, specifically involving hand-held and smart-phone based devices, and the development of co-registration and hemodynamic analysis approaches.

Her research has been funded by various federal and state agencies, including the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense, the American Cancer Society, the Canary Foundation, the W. H. Coulter Foundation and the Florida Department of Health. 

Godavarty graduated with a doctoral degree in chemical engineering from Texas A&M University in 2003 and worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Vermont’s Department of Computer Science. In August 2004, Godavarty joined FIU as an assistant professor in biomedical engineering and was promoted to associate professor once tenured.  

“Dr. Godavarty exemplifies what it means to be a health care hero,” said Ranu Jung, professor and chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME), Wallace H. Coulter Eminent Scholar Chair in Biomedical Engineering and an NAI Fellow. “From enhancing life-saving imaging technologies to helping our graduate students become entrepreneurial leaders in the medical technology field, Dr. Godavarty is a driving force in American biomedical innovation.”

With Godavarty’s election, FIU’s BME comprises two senior members and one fellow of the NAI.

For more information about the NAI Senior Members, please visit the NAI website.