Gianluca Lazzi PhD, MBA, has been elected to the rank of National Academy of Inventors (NAI) Fellow, the highest professional distinction bestowed solely upon academic inventors.
Lazzi is the USC Provost Professor of Ophthalmology, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Biomedical Engineering and Clinical Entrepreneurship; the Fred H. Cole Professor of Engineering; and director of the Institute for Technology and Medical Systems (ITEMS). He was elected for demonstrating “a highly prolific spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on the quality of life, economic development, and welfare of society.”
Lazzi’s research centers on the way electromagnetic fields produced by wireless and biomedical devices interact with and affect biological tissue. His research directly contributed to the development of methods to assess whether electromagnetic fields produced by wireless devices, such as cell phones and medical implants, meet international safety standards. He has also conducted groundbreaking work in the fields of electric and magnetic neurostimulation and computational neuroscience, and notably contributed to the development of the first FDA-approved artificial retina to restore partial vision to the blind.
Lazzi was previously elected as both an IEEE Fellow and an AIMBE Fellow for his contributions to bioelectromagnetics and bioelectrical implantable devices. He has received numerous accolades throughout his career, including the IEEE Wheeler Best Paper Award for the invention of microwave microantennas for implantable devices and a 2009 R&D100 Award for the development of the artificial retina, which was considered one of the 100 most significant inventions of the year.
“The elevation to NAI Fellow is a great honor for me, and I am grateful to have worked with excellent student and postdoctoral researchers who have collectively made these accomplishments possible,” Lazzi said. “It is very gratifying and humbling to learn that my peers acknowledge our innovations and translational efforts.”
The NAI Fellows Program is composed of 1,228 Fellows from more than 250 leading universities and governmental and non-profit research organizations around the world. For more information on the program, visit www.academyofinventors.org.
— by Alexandra Demetriou