16
December
2014
|
04:12 AM
America/New_York

​Two Ohio State Innovators Elected Fellows of National Academy of Inventors

COLUMBUS, Ohio—The National Academy of Inventors (NAI) has awarded the rank of Fellow to two researchers at The Ohio State University: Ching-Shih Chen and Yasuko Rikihisa.

Chen, the Lucius A. Wing Chair of Cancer Research and Therapy, professor of medicinal chemistry and internal medicine, and an investigator in Ohio State’s Comprehensive Cancer Center, developed new classes of cancer therapeutic agents, including two new anti-cancer drugs in clinical trials. He received Ohio State’s Distinguished Scholar Award, and was named Innovator of the Year by Ohio State’s Office of Research in 2010.

Rikihisa, Distinguished University Professor of veterinary biosciences, developed diagnostic platforms for a number of tick-borne zoonotic diseases. Products based on her work are commercially available and are now included in the annual health screening panels for dogs. She is also an investigator in the Comprehensive Cancer Center, wasnamed an Ohio State Innovator of the Year in 2011, and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2012.

Caroline Whitacre, Ohio State’s vice president for research, said that the recognition for both investigators was certainly well deserved.

“By creating innovative products that improve people’s lives, Drs. Chen and Rikihisa epitomize Ohio State’s research mission and the university’s worldwide impact,” she added.

NAI Fellows are nominated by their peers for outstanding contributions to innovation. Only researchers who “have demonstrated a prolific spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions and innovations that have made a tangible impact on quality of life, economic development and the welfare of society” are elected to the rank of Fellow.

Chen and Rikihisa will be featured in a full-page announcement in The Chronicle of Higher Education Jan. 16, 2015, issue, and in upcoming issues of Inventors Digest and Technology and Innovation. They will be inducted into NAI by the deputy U.S. commissioner for patent operations in March, and a plaque listing their name and institution will remain on permanent display at the U.S. Patent Office.