April 18, 2024
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Binghamton University faculty member elected Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors

Election to NAI Fellow status is the highest professional distinction accorded solely to academic inventors.

Distinguished Professor Jessica Fridrich, PhD ’95, of Binghamton University’s Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, was elected as a Fellow of The National Academy of Inventors (NAI).

NIA has named 148 renowned academic inventors to NAI Fellow status for 2018. Election to NAI Fellow status is the highest professional distinction accorded solely to academic inventors 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.

Fridrich has spent her tenure at Binghamton University focused on various topics in data embedding for security, covert communications, steganalysis and digital multimedia forensics.

One of Fridrich’s many patents is for an identification method that allows researchers to detect a camera’s unique fingerprint from the image itself. The technology was even featured in the 2009 film Beyond a Reasonable Doubt.

“It feels very special to be recognized in this way and to know that some of the inventions are actually being used in software applications for digital forensic experts,” said Fridrich.

With the election of the 2018 class, there are now over 1,000 NAI Fellows, representing more than 250 research universities and government and non-profit research institutes. The 2018 Fellows are named inventors on nearly 4,000 issued U.S. patents, bringing the collective patents held by all NAI Fellows to more than 35,000 issued U.S. patents.

“I am very proud to welcome another class of outstanding NAI Fellows, whose collective achievements have helped shape the future and who each day work to improve our world,” said Paul R. Sanberg, president of the NAI. “Each of these new NAI Fellows embodies the Academy’s mission through their dedication, creativity and inventive spirit. I look forward to working collaboratively with the new NAI Fellows in growing a global culture of innovation.”

The 2018 NAI Fellows will be highlighted with a full page announcement in the Jan. 25, 2019 issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education and in upcoming issues of Technology & Innovation.

The complete list of NAI Fellows is available on the NAI website.