top honor
6 Houstonians named to prestigious national group of inventors
Six Houston scientists and innovation leaders have been named to the National Academy of Inventors’ newest class of fellows. The award is the highest professional distinction awarded to academic inventors by the NAI.
The 2025 class is made up of 169 fellows who hold more than 5,300 U.S. patents, according to the organization. The group hails from 127 institutions across 40 U.S. states.
The Houston-based inventors are leading fields from AI to chemistry to cancer research.
“NAI Fellows are a driving force within the innovation ecosystem, and their contributions across scientific disciplines are shaping the future of our world,” Paul R. Sanberg, president of the National Academy of Inventors, said in a news release. “We are thrilled to welcome this year’s class of Fellows to the Academy. They are truly an impressive cohort, and we look forward to honoring them at our 15th Annual Conference in Los Angeles next year.”
The 2025 list of Houston-based fellows includes:
- Vineet Gupta, Vice President for Innovation, Technology Development and Transfer at the University of Texas Medical Branch
- Eva Harth, chemistry professor at the University of Houston
- Dr. Raghu Kalluri, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Cancer Biology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
- Sanjoy Paul, Executive Director of Rice Nexus and AI Houston and Associate Vice President for Technology Development at Rice University
- Dr. Jochen Reiser, President of the University of Texas Medical Branch and CEO of UTMB Health System
- Todd Rosengart, Professor and Chair of the Department of Surgery at Baylor College of Medicine
"It is a great honor to be named a Fellow of the NAI. It is deeply gratifying to know that the work my students and I do — the daily push, often in small steps — is seen and recognized," Harth added in a news release from UH.
The 2025 fellows will be honored and presented with their medals by a senior official of the United States Patent and Trademark Office at the NAI Annual Conference this summer in Los Angeles.