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The Stony Brook Chapter of the National Academy of Inventors Honored Rising Stars of Inventorship and Research

Three Stony Brook University innovators who received the Stony Brook Chapter of National Academy of Inventors’ Young Academic Inventors award on May 14, 2021, were invited to present an overview of their research at the virtual Young Academic Inventors’ Symposium held on November 17, 2021.

This year's awardees, Andrew Fesler, Sina Rashidian and Andrew LaBella, the rising stars of innovation and inventorship, will serve as role models for incoming junior faculty, post-docs, and graduate students. They all received their Ph.D.'s at Stony Brook University within the last three years, and their research interests lay in various areas:  therapeutics, artificial intelligence, and medical imaging. They collectively submitted 20 invention disclosures and received 15 distinct US patents, with some of their inventions already licensed to industry.

Dr. Iwao Ojima, the President of the Stony Brook University NAI Chapter, the Distinguished Professor at the Department of Chemistry, congratulated the awardees and provided historic overview of the Chapter since its creation in 2015. He highlighted recognition and honoring of young academic inventors as a significant part of the Chapter’s mission.

Dr. Sean Boykevisch, Director of the SBU Intellectual Property Partners and Executive Director of the Stony Brook University Chapter of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI), said: “These inventors feed a pipeline of innovation at Stony Brook University. By honoring them we hope to showcase their great research and innovation, and inspire the next generation innovators to follow in their footsteps.”

Andrew Fesler received his Ph.D. in 2018 in Molecular Cell Biology. Dr. Fesler has an extensive research experience and scientific background on the miRNA based therapeutic development.  He is now a Senior Scientist at Curamir Therapeutics. Andrew LaBella reeived his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering in 2020; his research was focused on developing new imaging methods and technologies.  Dr. LaBella is now a Diagnostic and Nuclear Medical Physics resident at Boston’s Children Hospital. Sina Rashidian received his Ph.D. in Computer Science, with the thesis on data generation and predictive modeling using deep learning with electronic health records. In 2021, Sina was a postdoctoral researcher in Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, and now works as a Data Scientist in Verily Life Science in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

In his opening remarks, Peter Donnelly, Associate Vice President for Technology Partnerships at SBU, highlighted that building innovation into the university culture and practice was one of the most important goals for Stony Brook University. Bringing new inventors into the community is critical for achieving this goal; the NAI Young Academic Inventors’ Award gives a unique chance to honor and greet brilliant early-career innovators, to showcase their research, and to give inspiration to the community by sharing their success.

The NAI-SBU Chapter mission is “to enhance the visibility of academic technology and innovation; to encourage the disclosure of intellectual property; to educate and mentor innovative students; and to translate the inventions of its members to benefit society."