Harrison Barrett, Regents' Professor of medical imaging, optical sciences and applied mathematics, received the distinction last month. and will be inducted in April at the NAI's annual meeting in Houston.
The NAI, founded in 2010, aims to "recognize and encourage inventors with patents issued from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, enhance the visibility of academic technology and innovation, encourage the disclosure of intellectual property, educate and mentor innovative students, and translate the inventions of its members to benefit society." Election to NAI fellow status is the highest professional distinction awarded to academic inventors.
Barrett's inventions date back to 1974 and include 27 U.S. patents. While working at Raytheon Research Division in the 1960s and 1970s, he explored ways to detect the relative motion of sources of high-energy radiation. In 1974, he began his academic career at the UA, where his interests spread to tomographic imaging, scintillation cameras, CT scanning, and single-photon emission computerized tomography imaging devices – used for analyzing organs – and autoradiography.