Two Indian-Americans inducted into US National Inventors Hall of Fame
Two Indian pioneers have been recognised for their inventions in wireless technology and for a dental filling material that mimics the natural teeth.
Two Indian-American innovation pioneers – Arogyaswami Paulraj and Sumita Mitra have been inducted into the prestigious National Inventors Hall of Fame this year.
Arogyaswami Paulraj for his Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) wireless technology and Sumita Mitra for her nanocomposite dental materials will be formally inducted during the innovation industry’s most highly anticipated event – The Greatest Celebration of American Innovation on May 2-3 organised in partnership with the United States (US) Patent and Trademark Office.
The two Indians will be sharing the room along with 13 other innovation pioneers.
Releasing its list of 2018 inductees, National Inventors Hall of Fame, said, Dr Paulraj’s wireless technology has revolutionised broadband wireless Internet access for billions of people worldwide.
The MIMO tech improves both transmission data rates and expands network coverage. It is the essential foundation for all current (Wi-Fi and 4G mobile) and future broadband wireless communications, news reports say.
“It is a wonderful honour. I feel enormously humbled to be counted among the inventors who have made the modern world possible,” Paulraj was quoted.
Paulraj has also been handed the chairmanship of the Department of Telecom’s Steering Committee “to deliberate and finalise vision, mission, goals and roadmaps for 5G India 2020.”
“I have always felt that India needs to join the club of countries like US, China, Europe, South Korea and Japan that dominate communications and computing technology,” he was quoted saying.
Currently Paulraj is a professor emeritus at Stanford. He holds 79 patents and has won several global distinctions, which include both the two top global honours for telecom pioneers – the 2011 IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal and 2014 Marconi Prize and Fellowship. In 2010, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan (India’s third highest civilian award).
On the other hand, Mitra, in the late 1900s, invented the first dental filling material to include nanoparticles.
A versatile filling material, the composite is called Filtek Supreme Universal Restorative and can be used for restoring teeth in any area of the mouth while mimicking the beauty of natural teeth, with better polish retention and superior strength than existing dental composites.
Mitra holds 98 US patents and their international equivalents. Her inventions have led to a number of breakthroughs in dental technology, including nanocomposites, resin-modified glass ionomers and dental adhesives.
After getting her degrees in India, Mitra went to the University of Michigan for her PhD in organic/polymer chemistry.
A former Science Coach for the American Chemical Society, she was Industrial Director for nearly ten years at Minnesota Dental Research Center for Biomaterials and Biomechanics in the University of Minnesota.
