The National Inventors Hall of Fame®, in partnership with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), hosted an induction ceremony on May 4, 2017 at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC. It’s part of a two-day, Greatest Celebration of American Innovation event, honoring 15 pioneers who have contributed signficantly to society through their groundbreaking inventions. The cremony will be hosted by Mo Rocca, “CBS Sunday Morning” correspondent and host of The Henry Ford’s “Innovation Nation” television show.
“Each year, we induct a new class of industry pioneers… who have conceived and patented innovations to further our nation, and this year’s class is no exception,” says Hall of Fame CEO Mike Oister. “This year’s Inductees have provided solutions to life’s common problems and as a result, they’ve enhanced our lives.”
The 2017 inductees are:
- Iver Anderson – Lead-Free solder is found in most consumer electronic devices such as smart phones, laptops and tablets. More than 50,000 tons of lead per year will no longer be released into the environment, worldwide.
- Donald Arney – Bambi Bucket® for Aerial Firefighting, an efficient, collapsible bucket controlled by the pilot, improving water delivery to the fire.
- Carolyn Bertozzi – Bioorthogonal chemistry allows researchers to chemically modify molecules within living systems.
- Eli Harari – Founder, SanDisk. Inventor of Floating Gate EEPROM and co-inventor of System-Flash; his work served as the foundation for transforming flash memory into highly versatile, portable, mass storage media.
- Marshall Jones – Invented novel methods to weld dissimilar metals and developed fiber optic systems that made lasers much more convenient for industrial applications, when lasers were uncommon in materials processing.
- Frances Ligler – Her work at the US Naval Research Laboratory allowed biosensors to move out of the lab and into use for food safety, disease diagnosis, pollution control and homeland security.
- Tom Leighton and Daniel Lewin (Posthumous Inductee) – Content Delivery Network encompassed powerful algorithms that solved routing and traffic problems for freer movement on the internet.
- Earle Dickson (Posthumous Inductee) – Band-Aid® Adhesive Bandage
- Harold “Bud” Froehlich (Posthumous Inductee) – The Alvin Deep-Sea Submersible held three crewmembers and dove to over 14,000 feet; recovered hydrogen bombs and explored the Titanic.
- Haren Gandhi (Posthumous Inductee) – Automotive Exhaust Catalysts
The Henry Ford Technical Fellow’s work with catalysts greatly improved the quality of exhaust by converting pollutants to harmless emissions. - Howard Head (Posthumous Inductee) – The laminate ski and the oversized tennis racket
- Beatrice Hicks (Posthumous Inductee) – invented a gas density sensor used by NASA to indicate a leak when there was a change in the density of artificial atmospheres protecting electronic equipment and other vital mechanisms.
- Allene Jeanes (Posthumous Inductee) – Dextran Production; Xanthan Gum
- Augustine Sackett (Posthumous Inductee) – Drywall
The 2017 inductees, as part of their involvement with the National Inventors Hall of Fame, will inspire the curriculum of Camp Invention, a nationwide, summer enrichment day camp that encourages innovation in youth and focuses on science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). Inductees also serve as judges for the Collegiate Inventors Competition, a national platform for showcasing emerging ideas and technologies.