The National Academy of Inventors has introduced the choice of two Fellows from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities College of Science and Engineering: Nikolaos Papanikolopoulos and Shashank Priya.
NAI Fellowship is the highest skilled distinction awarded solely to inventors. Together, the 2025 class holds greater than 5,300 U.S. patents and contains recipients of the Nobel Prize, the National Medals of Science and Technology & Innovation, and members of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, amongst others. This yr’s 169 U.S. Fellows signify 127 universities, authorities companies and analysis establishments throughout 40 U.S. states.
“The extraordinary accomplishments of Drs. Papanikolopoulos and Priya are exemplary of the strong commitment by our faculty to innovation that transcends disciplinary boundaries,” stated Executive Vice President and Provost Gretchen Ritter. “Through research, collaboration and leadership, their work continues to break ground on the frontiers of technology innovation.”
Nikolaos Papanikolopoulos is the McKnight Presidential Endowed Professor and a Distinguished McKnight University Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering. He is a scholar and inventor making vital contributions to the fields of robotics, laptop imaginative and prescient and clever transportation techniques. Papanikolopoulos is the Director of the Minnesota Robotics Institute, has authored or co-authored greater than 400 papers and holds 9 patents. He based the firm ReconRobotics Inc. with a number of of his college students in the early 2000s, which translated into the manufacturing of the UMN Scout robotic, which relies on three of his patents. More than 6,000 Scout robots have been deployed by army and police to enhance the distance between people and hurt’s manner.
Papanikolopoulos has obtained quite a few awards that embody the 2022 UMN Award for Outstanding Contributions to Graduate and Professional Education, the 2016 IEEE RAS George Saridis Leadership Award in Robotics and Automation, the 2016 CTS Research Partnership Award, the 2011 IEEE RAS Distinguished Service Award and the IEEE VTS 2001 Best Land Transportation Paper Award (with Osama Masoud). He is an IEEE Fellow.
Shashank Priya, a professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, is the founding govt director of the University of Minnesota’s National Security Research Institute. He beforehand served as the University’s vice chairman for analysis and innovation, the place he led a analysis enterprise exceeding $1 billion throughout all campuses and amenities and helped drive document development in sponsored awards, analysis expenditures, and startup formation. An internationally acknowledged authority in supplies engineering, bio-inspired techniques, and power harvesting, Priya has established himself as a visionary inventor, innovation strategist and ecosystem builder whose work continues to form each scientific progress and societal well-being. He has revealed greater than 500 peer-reviewed journal articles and holds 10 issued U.S. patents encompassing breakthrough developments in piezoelectric supplies, power harvesting, magnetoelectrics, perovskite photovoltaics and thermoelectrics. Many of these improvements—corresponding to textured piezoelectrics—have been efficiently transitioned to trade, whereas others, together with versatile photovoltaics, have catalyzed the improvement of rising merchandise and applied sciences. Priya’s pioneering innovations—starting from high-power thermoelectrics that convert warmth into electrical energy, to textured piezoceramics enabling underwater communication and mechanical-to-electrical power conversion, to hybrid perovskites for next-generation photo voltaic cells and sensors, and multimodal vibration harvesters succesful of capturing power from various environmental sources—spotlight his distinctive means to marry scientific rigor with a daring translational imaginative and prescient.
Priya additionally based and directed the NSF I/UCRC Center for Energy Harvesting Materials and Systems, a foundational platform for trade–college collaboration aimed toward accelerating power supplies into real-world functions. He based and chaired the Energy Harvesting Workshop for a number of years, creating a worldwide discussion board that has enabled the worldwide analysis neighborhood to have interaction, collaborate and advance the frontiers of power era and storage. Priya is a fellow of the American Ceramic Society.
The 2025 Class of Fellows will be honored and introduced their medals by a senior official of the United States Patent and Trademark Office at the NAI fifteenth Annual Conference on June 4, 2026, in Los Angeles. The cohort contains 169 U.S. distinguished educational and institutional inventors and 16 International Fellows. Explore the full list of 2025 Fellows (PDF).