Thomas Gennett, chemistry
professor and co-director of RIT’s Nanopower Research Labs in the
College of Science, received the RIT Creator’s Award for 2002.
 |
| Professor
Thomas Gennett and NSF Deputy Director Joseph Bordogna at RIT's
inventors dinner |
Gennett was honored for his
groundbreaking work with carbon nanotubes. “We’re very excited
about where this will take technology applications in the near future,”
he notes, citing uses that will allow marked fuel savings in things
ranging from from cars to space vehicles.
The Creator’s Award
recognizes outstanding creative works by an individual or group in the
RIT community. The award-winning work, required to be part of RIT’s
portfolio of intellectual property, must show inventiveness, the potential
to be revolutionary, an impact on students, community and society, and
substantial long-term benefits. RIT’s Intellectual Property Policy
committee chooses
the winner.
RIT also announced six winners
of the Intellectual Property Productivity Award at a dinner in April.
They are Gennett, Noboru Ohta, Michael Potter, Mitchell Rosen, Bruce
Smith and Ryan Raffaelle. Additionally, Smith, associate dean of the
Kate Gleason College of Engineering and microelectronics professor,
received a plaque for a recently issued patent on microlithography processes.
Smith won the first Creator’s Award in 1999.
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 application.
This year’s event featured
keynote addresses by Congressman Sherwood Boehlert (R-N.Y.), chair of
the House Science Committee, and Joseph Bordogna, deputy director and
chief operating officer of the National Science Foundation.
