2023 National Academy of Inventors

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Profs. Xiangfeng Duan and Paul S. Weiss

Professors Xiangfeng Duan and Paul S. Weiss have been elected as fellows of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI).

The academy’s fellowship honors inventors at academic institutions who have “demonstrated a prolific spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on quality of life, economic development and the welfare of society.”

Professor Xiangfeng Duan, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry, is a global pioneer in nanoscale materials and their applications in novel devices that could transform future electronic, energy, and medical technologies. He is the recipient of the 2023 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Pioneer Award in Nanotechnology “for pioneering contribution to the synthesis and integration of nanoscale materials and devices, especially van der Waals heterostructures and devices.” He also recently received the UCLA Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry’s prestigious 2022 McCoy Award, which recognizes the researchers in the department who have made the greatest contribution of the year to the science of chemistry and biochemistry.  Duan is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Royal Society of Chemistry.  From 2002 to 2008, Duan was a Founding Scientist, Principal Scientist and Manager of Advanced Technology at Nanosys Inc., a nanotechnology startup founded based partly on his doctoral research.  He joined UCLA in 2008.  Duan has over 300 published articles and over 50 US patents.

Professor Paul S. Weiss holds the UC Presidential Chair in Chemistry and leads an interdisciplinary research group at UCLA that focuses on atomic-scale chemical, physical, optical, mechanical and electronic properties of surfaces and supramolecular assemblies. His research has led to major advances in scanning probe microscopes, a broad range of nanofabrication processes, high-throughput gene editing and tissue engineering, providing insights into biological, electronic, mechanical and thermal systems. A prolific scientist and inventor, Weiss holds more than 40 U.S. and international patents and has been an author of more than 500 publications. He is a fellow of IEEE, AIMBE, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Chemical Society, the American Vacuum Society and the Materials Research Society. He joined UCLA in 2009 from Pennsylvania State University, where he was a distinguished professor of chemistry and physics. He is a member of the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, the UCLA Goodman-Luskin Microbiome Center, and the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA, where Weiss served as its director from 2009 to 2014. He founded and led the journal ACS Nano, serving as editor-in-chief from 2007 to 2021.

Also joining Duan and Weiss as a new fellow of the National Academy of Inventors is Eric P. Y. Chiou — a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering.  The UCLA trio are part of the academy’s 2023 class of 162 fellows from 35 U.S. states and 10 countries. They will be honored at the NAI’s 13th annual meeting June 2024 in Raleigh, North Carolina.