RIT Honors Professor’s Research with Creator’s Award

Rochester Institute of Technology professor Thomas Gennett, a resident of the Town of Pittsford, recently won RIT’s second annual Creator’s Award, which goes to an outstanding innovator at RIT.

Gennett, chemistry professor and co-director of RIT’s Nanopower Research Labs in the College of Science, won the Institute’s second-ever Creator’s Award based on his groundbreaking work with carbon nanotubes. This technology may one day replace fossil fuels to power automobiles and spacecraft.

RIT’s Creator’s Award recognizes outstanding creative works by a member or group in the RIT community. The award-winning work, required to be part of RIT’s portfolio of intellectual property, must show inventiveness and the potential to be revolutionary, with an impact on students, community and society, and offer substantial long-term benefits. RIT’s Intellectual Property Policy committee chooses the winner based on careful scrutiny, analysis and works comparison.

Gennett, also a winner of an Intellectual Property Productivity Award, was recognized during an awards ceremony, the Inventors’ Dinner, held at the RIT Inn & Conference Center. The Inventors’ Dinner honors RIT students and faculty/staff members who have disclosed a creative work that RIT has begun the process of protecting through trademark, patent or copyright applications.