Lawrence Drzal, professor at Michigan State University‘s College of Engineering, has been elected a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors class of 2018.
Drzal is a University Distinguished Professor of chemical engineering and materials science and the director of the MSU Composite Materials and Structures Center. He is also director of the Vehicle Technical Application Area in the Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation in Detroit.
He is among 148 new fellows this year, who are named inventors on nearly 4,000 issued U.S. patents. He joins two other MSU faculty members, Anil Jain and Ramani Narayan, who were recognized by the national organization in 2015.
Election to National Academy of Inventors fellow status is the highest professional distinction given to academic inventors whose inventions have made a tangible impact on quality of life, economic development and the welfare of society.
The 2018 fellows class will be inducted at NASA’s Space Center Houston in April 2019 at the National Academy of Inventors’ eighth annual meeting. The complete list of fellows is available on the NAI website.
Drzal’s list of honors is extensive and includes the Society of Plastics Engineers Automotive Division's Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2018, he received the MSU Lifetime Technology Transfer Award.
Drzal is also an elected fellow of the American Society for Composites, Adhesion Society, American Institute of Chemists, Society of Plastics Engineers and the Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering.
Drzal founded MSU’s Composite Materials and Structures Center in 1985, which has turned it into a national multidisciplinary research facility.