Shenk named to the National Academy of Inventors

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Princeton University
Dec. 12, 2018

The National Academy of Inventors (NAI) has selected Thomas Shenk as one of the 148 fellows for 2018.

Shenk, the James A. Elkins Jr. Professor in the Life Sciences, studies the functions and origins of viruses that cause tumors and birth defects. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the U.S. Institute of Medicine, and a past president of the American Society for Virology and the American Society for Microbiology.

NAI Fellows are nominated by their peers for inventions that make a tangible impact on quality of life, economic development and the welfare of society. The 2018 NAI Fellows are named inventors on nearly 4,000 issued U.S. patents.

 “The National Academy of Inventors has elected an exceptional group of diverse inventors who have made an incredible impact on the innovation sphere on a global scale,” said Andrew Hirshfeld, commissioner for patents at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Shenk will be inducted into the NAI at Space Center Houston on April 11, at the NAI annual meeting. The fellows will also be highlighted with a full-page announcement in the Jan. 25 issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education and in upcoming issues of Technology & Innovation.

Past NAI fellows from Princeton include Ilhan Aksay, the Pomeroy and Betty Perry Smith Professor in Engineering and a professor of chemical and biological engineering; Emily Carter, dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science and the Gerhard R. Andlinger Professor in Energy and the Environment, as well as a professor in mechanical and aerospace engineering and applied and computational mathematics; Stephen Chou, the Joseph C. Elgin Professor of Engineering and a professor of electrical engineering; Vincent Poor, the Michael Henry Strater University Professor of Electrical Engineering; Paul Prucnal, a professor of electrical engineering; and Jennifer Rexford, the Gordon Y.S. Wu Professor in Engineering and chair of computer science.


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