Michael Simpson, a professor in UT’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering, has been selected for induction as a National Academy of Inventors Fellow for 2018.

Being named an NAI Fellow is one of the highest honors a researcher can receive. For Simpson, who also serves as the assistant director of the UT-Oak Ridge National Laboratory Bredesen Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Graduate Education, the acknowledgement comes for his work in biosensors and nanotechnology.

“I am humbled to have been selected for this honor,” said Simpson. “This recognition is only possible because of the dedication of my graduate students and collaborators at UT and ORNL that have worked with me over the last 26 years.”

The 2018 class represents 125 research universities and governmental and nonprofit research institutes worldwide, and its members collectively hold nearly 4,000 issued US patents. With the new class, there are now more than 1,000 NAI Fellows who have generated more than 11,000 licensed technologies and companies, created more than 1.4 million jobs, and generated over $190 billion in revenue.

Simpson has authored more than 165 publications and has 35 US patents and more than 11,500 citations. He earned his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees from UT in electrical engineering in 1983, ’87, and ’91, respectively.

He was elected a fellow of the IEEE in 2008, a member of the College of Fellows of the American Institute for Medical and Biomedical Engineering in 2010, and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2011.

Simpson joins four colleagues in the Tickle College of Engineering as an NAI Fellow: Mark Dean, interim dean and John Fisher Distinguished Professor; Yilu Liu, UT-ORNL Governor’s Chair for Power Electronics and CURENT deputy director; Fred Wang, Condra Chair of Excellence in Power Electronics; and Doug Birdwell, professor emeritus.

Selections are made based on peer nominations for innovation and discovery that have significant impact on society and help enhance further research.

Simpson and the other NAI Fellows will be inducted on April 11, 2019, as part of the eighth Annual Meeting of the National Academy of Inventors in Houston.