National Academy of Inventors Announces Fellows

Two Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) faculty members, David Center, MD, and William W. Cruikshank, PhD, have been named Fellows of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). 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.

David Center, MD
David Center, MD

Center and Cruikshank join 141 peer innovators who represent 94 universities and government and non-profit research institutes. Together, they hold more than 5,600 U.S. patents. Included in the 2013 class are 26 presidents and senior leadership of research universities and non-profit research institutes, 69 members of the National Academies (IOM, NAS, NAE), five inductees of the National Inventors Hall of Fame, six recipients of the U.S. National Medal of Technology and Innovation, two recipients of the U.S. National Medal of Science and nine Nobel Laureates, among other major awards and distinctions.

Center is chief of pulmonary, allergy and critical care medicine at BMC and the Gordon and Ruth Snider Professor of Pulmonary Medicine at BUSM. In addition, he is associate provost for Translational Clinical Research at Boston University, where he oversees efforts to facilitate translational research and leads initiatives that identify new areas for development as well as directs the Clinical and Translational Research Institute, funded by the National Institutes of Health. His research interests include asthma pathology, mechanisms of inflammation and immune-based lung disease.

William W. Cruikshank, PhD
William W. Cruikshank, PhD

Cruikshank, director of immunology and a professor of medicine at BUSM, has been conducting basic science and translational research for the past 34 years and has authored more than 160 publications in peer reviewed journals. His research addresses the development of asthma as well as mechanistic steps involved in the onset of cutaneous T cell lymphomas. Serving as director of the Summer Undergraduate Research Program at BUSM, Cruikshank is focused on increasing diversity within the graduate programs and is providing summer research opportunities for under-represented minorities.

Center and Cruikshank were nominated by the NAI Fellows Selection Committee that comprises 13 Members including NAI Charter Fellows, recipients of U.S. National Medals, National Inventors Hall of Fame inductees, members of the National Academies and senior officials from the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Association of University Technology Managers, and the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

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