Three from Hopkins join National Academy of Inventors

Three Johns Hopkins researchers have been selected for membership in the National Academy of Inventors, an honor that recognizes those who have created or facilitated "outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on the quality of life, economic development, and the welfare of society," according to the NAI. Election as an NAI Fellow is the highest professional distinction awarded to academic inventors.

Krishan Sabnani, Ru Chih Huang, and Saraswati Sukumar are among 169 distinguished academic inventors to be named NAI Fellows this year. The 2022 fellow class represents 110 research universities and governmental and non-profit research institutes worldwide and collectively hold over 4,800 issued U.S. patents.

The Whiting School of Engineering Homewood Professor of Computer Science, Krishan Sabnani has made many seminal contributions to internet infrastructure design, protocol design, and wireless networks. He led the breakthrough discovery in internet redesign that separated control functions and complex software from the forwarding portions on internet routers, a precursor to the current Software Defined Networking (SDN) revolution. He was also the first to develop a systematic approach to conformance testing, allowing communications systems to work together and reducing test time from weeks to a few hours.

Ru Chih Huang is a leader in the fields of biochemistry and molecular biology and a longtime member of the Johns Hopkins faculty. She became the university's first female science professor in 1965 and is now the McElroy Honorary Research Professor in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences Department of Biology. She has led discoveries into chromosomal RNA synthesis, viral replication, and cancer development in humans. Her laboratory led the development of Terameprocol, which has been shown in lab and mouse studies to be an effective cancer treatment.

Saraswati Sukumar is a professor of oncology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, where she conducts research into the molecular and genetic profiles of breast cancer cells and applies this knowledge to the early detection, diagnosis, and therapy of breast cancer. Her long term goal is to provide a molecular blood test for early detection of breast cancer. She joined Johns Hopkins in 1994 and served as co-director of the Breast Cancer Program at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center until 2015.

"This year's class of NAI Fellows represents a truly outstanding caliber of innovators. Each of these individuals have made significant impact through their work and are highly-regarded in their respective fields," said Paul R. Sanberg, president of the National Academy of Inventors, in a press release announcing this year's class. "The breadth and scope of their inventions is truly staggering. I am excited to see their creativity continue to define a new era of science and technology in the global innovation ecosystem."

The 2022 class will be inducted at the Fellows Induction Ceremony at the 12th Annual Meeting of the National Academy of Inventors on June 27, 2023, in Washington, D.C.