Scully Named Fellow of National Academy of Inventors
COLLEGE STATION —
Marlan O. Scully, distinguished professor of physics and astronomy at Texas A&M University, has been selected as a 2015 Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI).
Scully is one of two Texas A&M faculty-researchers recognized among the NAI’s 168 fellow honorees for 2015 announced today (Tuesday, Dec. 15). He joins Christopher A. Floudas, professor of chemical engineering and holder of the Erle Nye ’59 Chair for Engineering Excellence in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering within the Dwight Look College of Engineering and director of the Texas A&M Energy Institute, as the university’s most recently recognized “academic inventors who have demonstrated a prolific spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on quality of life, economic development, and the welfare of society.”
A world-renowned pioneer in quantum optics and laser physics, Dr. Scully has brought distinction to Texas A&M and his disciplines by leading the way to many scientific breakthroughs, such as slowing the speed of light to the snail-like pace of 10 miles per hour, making revolutionary lasers without population inversion and showing how quantum mechanics can yield a class of novel quantum heat engines.
Scully and Floudas will be inducted on April 15, 2016, during the academy’s fifth annual conference at the United States Patent and Trademark Office in Alexandria, Va. , where each will be presented with a special trophy, medal and rosette pin. All 2015 NAI Fellows also will be recognized with a full page announcement in The Chronicle of Higher Education’s Jan. 22, 2016 issue and in upcoming issues of Inventors Digest and the NAI journal Technology and Innovation.
Scully, a world-renowned pioneer of quantum optics and laser physics, is director of the Institute for Quantum Science and Engineering and the Center for Theoretical Physics. He holds the Hershel E. Burgess ’29 Chair in Physics in the Department of Physics and Astronomy as well as a Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station (TEES) Distinguished Research Chair. He also serves as associate dean for external relations in the College of Science and holds a joint professorial appointment in the Department of Chemistry as well as at Princeton University.
Scully’s primary career contributions to both science and engineering include the first quantum theory of the laser, the first demonstrations of lasing without inversion, the first demonstration of ultraslow light in hot gases, and the use of quantum coherence to detect anthrax in real time. Furthermore, his work on quantum coherence and correlation effects has shed new light on the foundations of quantum mechanics. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, Academia Europaea and the Max Planck Society as well as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, The Optical Society and the American Physical Society.
“Marlan Scully has that rare ability to apply a deep understanding of fundamentals of physics to important applied problems, translating his insights not just to experiments but to inventions and patents,” said George R. Welch, professor and head of Texas A&M Physics and Astronomy. “We’re deeply honored that he has been selected as an NAI Fellow.”
Today’s announcement brings the total of NAI Fellows to 582, representing more than 190 research universities and governmental and non-profit research institutions. The 2015 Fellows account for more than 5,300 issued U.S. patents, bringing the patents held by all NAI Fellows to more than 20,000.
Texas A&M has two previous NAI Fellows, each named in 2014 — B. Don Russell Jr., distinguished professor and holder of the Harry E. Bovay Jr. Chair in the Texas A&M Engineering Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Darwin J. Prockop, professor and holder of the Stearman Chair in Genomic Medicine in the Texas A&M Health Science Center Department of Medicine and director of its Institute for Regenerative Medicine.
To learn more about the National Academy of Inventors and the 2015 Fellows class, visit http://academyofinventors.org/.
# # # # # # # # # #
About the National Academy of Inventors: The National Academy of Inventors is a 501(c)(3) non profit member organization comprised of U.S. and international universities, and governmental and non-profit research institutions, with over 3,000 individual inventor members and Fellows spanning more than 200 institutions, and growing rapidly. It was founded in 2010 to recognize and encourage inventors with patents issued from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, enhance the visibility of academic technology and innovation, encourage the disclosure of intellectual property, educate and mentor innovative students, and translate the inventions of its members to benefit society. The NAI edits the multidisciplinary journal, Technology and Innovation, published by Cognizant Communication Corporation (NY). To learn more, go to www.academyofinventors.org.
About Research at Texas A&M University: As one of the world’s leading research institutions, Texas A&M is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery, including that of science and technology. Research conducted at Texas A&M represented annual expenditures of more than $854 million in fiscal year 2014, ranking Texas A&M in the top 20 of the National Science Foundation’s Higher Education Research and Development survey (2014). Texas A&M’s research creates new knowledge that provides basic, fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state, nation and world. To learn more, visit http://research.tamu.edu.
-aTm-
Contact: Shana K. Hutchins, (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@science.tamu.edu or Dr. Marlan O. Scully, (979) 862-2333 or scully@tamu.edu
The post Scully Named Fellow of National Academy of Inventors appeared first on Texas A&M College of Science.