Last week, the National Academy of Inventors (NAI) announced the election of 170 exceptional inventors into the 2024 Class of Fellows, including three Columbia faculty members. The NAI Fellows Program was established to highlight 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. Election to NAI Fellow status is the highest professional distinction awarded solely to academic inventors.
Ioannis (John) Kymissis, the Kenneth Brayer Professor of Electrical Engineering and vice dean of Infrastructure and Innovation at Columbia Engineering, was named an NAI Fellow in recognition of his pioneering work in thin-film electronics and contributions to innovation and technology translation.
W. Ian Lipkin, director of the Center for Infection and Immunity (CII) and John Snow Professor of Epidemiology at Columbia Mailman School of Public Health, was named an NAI Fellow in recognition of his technical achievements in spearheading the development of novel technologies for infectious disease diagnosis, surveillance, and discovery, in service of public health.
Konstantin Petrukhin, Professor of Ophthalmic Sciences (in Ophthalmology) at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, was named an NAI Fellow in recognition of his Retinol-Binding Protein 4 (RBP4) expertise and for having invented Tinlarebant (LBS-008), a potent, orally administered small molecule RBP4 antagonist designed to slow or prevent loss of vision in patients with Stargardt Disease (STGD1) and dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD).
The 2024 National Academy of Inventors Fellows will be formally inducted at the 14th NAI Annual Conference, held June 23-26, 2025, in Atlanta.
Columbia Technology Ventures is pleased to see these prolific Columbia innovators honored for their contributions to their fields through patented and licensed technologies. Their achievements exemplify CTV's mission to facilitate the transfer of inventions from academic research labs to the market for the benefit of society.