Dr. Christine E. Schmidt, professor, J. Crayton Pruitt Family Chair & Department Chair, has been named a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI).

Election to NAI Fellow status is the highest professional accolade bestowed solely to 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 welfare of society.

Schmidt’s work in materials and cellular/tissue engineering has had a significant clinical impact on nerve repair and post-surgical wound care management. She is the inventor for 10 US patents and six foreign patents that have been licensed to four companies. Her research is the foundation for the start-up company Alafair Biosciences and the Avance Nerve Repair graft from AxoGen.

Schmidt has published 120 articles and is Section Editor for Current Opinion in Biomedical Engineering. She is the current President of the American Institute for Medical & Biological Engineering (AIMBE). She is a Fellow of AIMBE, the Biomedical Engineering Society, and the American Society for the Advancement of Science, as well as a Fellow of Biomaterials Science and Engineering of the International Union of Societies for Biomaterials Science and Engineering.

The theme for the Eighth Annual Meeting of the National Academy of Inventors is “Connecting the Innovation Community” and will be held April 10-11, 2019 at the JW Marriott Galleria in Houston, Texas.

The National Academy of Inventors is a member organization comprising U.S. and international universities, and governmental and non-profit research institutes, with over 4,000 individual inventor members and Fellows spanning more than 250 institutions worldwide.