Two UNM researchers garner international renown
Academy adds pair to list of innovators
University of New Mexico professors Steven Brueck and Jeffrey Brinker are gaining international recognition as some of the world’s most prolific academic researchers and inventors.
That’s according to the National Academy of Inventors, which on Dec. 15 named both professors to its list of distinguished innovators from across the globe. The list is compiled each year from nominees at nearly 200 universities and research institutions worldwide.
This year’s list includes 168 winners, or NAI Fellows, who the Academy believes have demonstrated a highly prolific spirit of innovation, creating or facilitating outstanding inventions with a tangible impact on society, said Academy President Paul R. Sanberg.
“These inspiring individuals have made remarkable contributions to society,” Sanberg said. “They encourage a culture where invention and innovation is brought to the forefront.”
Among the Academy’s current and past fellows are 27 Nobel Laureates.
Both UNM professors have spearheaded research in Albuquerque that’s led to breakthrough technology, said Lisa Kuuttila, president and CEO of the Science and Technology Corp., UNM’s tech-transfer office.
Brueck is a professor of electrical and computer engineering who founded UNM’s Center for High Technology Materials. He’s achieved about 60 issued patents for his work at UNM over the years.
That includes the creation of “double patterning” — an innovative method of optical lithography that allows electronics manufacturers to cram a lot more features onto semiconductor chips. The process has been licensed from UNM by global industry giants such as Samsung and Toshiba, generating about $8 million in fees and royalties.
“Dr. Brueck has the most patents of anyone at UNM,” Kuuttila said. “He’s the inventor of double patterning lithography, which has generated the most income of any technology at UNM to date.”
Brinker, who holds joint appointments as a UNM professor and a researcher at Sandia National Laboratories, is the principal architect of a tiny nanoparticle called the “protocell” that could soon be used for radically improved drug delivery to fight cancer and other diseases. The porous nanoparticle — about one-thousandth the width of a human hair — can be loaded up with medicines and engineered to bypass normal cells for highly-targeted therapy that attacks only infected tissue.
That technology was spun off into a startup company, Alpine Biosciences, which was acquired last year by a larger company for $27 million.