Two engineering professors named Senior Members of National Academy of Inventors
Tengfei Luo and Matthew J. Webber have been named Senior Members by the National Academy of Inventors (NAI), making them the first Notre Dame faculty members to receive this honor.
According to the NAI, Senior Members are “active faculty, scientists, and administrators with success in patents, licensing, and commercialization and have produced technologies that have brought or aspire to bring, real impact on the welfare of society.”
Tengfei Luo, the Dorini Energy Professor in the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering and director of Notre Dame’s MÖNSTER Lab (MOlecular/Nano-Scale Transport & Energy Research Laboratory), has established himself as a leader in the field of thermal sciences and materials engineering.
Luo’s research has led to inventions, ranging from energy-saving coatings for windows, to technologies that detect cancer and nanoplastics, to a new desalination method that uses ionic liquids and low-temperature heat.
Matthew Webber, the Keating-Crawford Collegiate Professor of Engineering and associate professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering as well as the acting director of the Berthiaume Institute for Precision Health, has pioneered advancements in the application of supramolecular chemistry for use in biomaterials and drug delivery technologies.
His patented inventions, many of which were developed in the Webber Lab, offer better ways to deliver therapeutics, including new targeting strategies for cancer and related diseases as well as new glucose-responsive delivery mechanisms for treating diabetes.
Both awardees have made significant contributions to commercialization and have licensed their inventions to start-up companies, which have secured more than three million in funding.
The 2025 class of Senior Members will be celebrated during an induction ceremony at NAI’s 14th Annual Conference, taking place June 23-26 in Atlanta, Georgia.
A full list of NAI Senior members is available on the Academy’s website.
Latest ND NewsWire
- Division of Student Affairs awards scholarships to student leadersThe University of Notre Dame’s Division of Student Affairs recently recognized 15 junior undergraduate students with scholarships for the 2025-26 academic year for their demonstrated leadership and ongoing commitment to the holistic development of Notre Dame students.
- Empowering South Bend entrepreneurs: Notre Dame loan partnership aims to fuel opportunity, deepen community engagementA new community partnership will serve graduates of the University of Notre Dame's South Bend Entrepreneurship and Adversity Program, supporting small business owners who often cannot qualify for conventional financing. The initiative will empower local entrepreneurs to scale up their businesses.
- Notre Dame celebrates new pope; Father Dowd offers prayersRev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C., president of the University of Notre Dame, offered his prayers for Pope Leo XIV, elected by the College of Cardinals today in Vatican City as the 267th pontiff of the Catholic Church.
- Collaboration with National Education Equity Lab to Create Pathways to Notre DameA group of campus units led by Notre Dame Learning’s Office of Digital Learning are building a pathway to the University for students who might not otherwise envision themselves as candidates to attend. It is an initiative made possible through a collaboration with the National Education Equity Lab, which partners with top universities to deliver actual college credit-bearing courses and supports to scholars in low-income high school classrooms across the nation.
- Clare Cullinan named valedictorian, Bennett Schmitt selected as salutatorian for the Class of 2025Clare Cullinan of South Bend, Indiana, has been named valedictorian and Bennett Schmitt from Jasper, Indiana, has been selected as salutatorian of the 2025 University of Notre Dame graduating class. The 180th University Commencement Ceremony will be held May 18 (Sunday) in Notre Dame Stadium for graduates and guests. During the ceremony, Cullinan will present the valedictory address, and as salutatorian, Schmitt will offer the invocation.
- Notre Dame’s Fightin’ Irish Battalion receives Department of Defense award as nation’s top Army ROTC programThe United States Department of Defense honored the University of Notre Dame’s Army ROTC Fightin’ Irish Battalion as the nation’s top Army collegiate program for the 2023-24 academic year. This will be the first time the unit has received the department’s Educational Institution Partnership Excellence Award, which recognizes the program’s achievements in recruiting, educating, training and commissioning leaders of character to be the next generation of military officers.
