Farha Named to National Academy of Inventors
December 11, 2025
Northwestern Engineering’s Zdeněk Bažant and Omar Farha have been named 2025 fellows of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI).
NAI fellow status is the highest professional distinction awarded solely to academic inventors. The program recognizes academic inventors who have demonstrated a “spirit of innovation” by creating or facilitating inventions that have made a tangible impact on quality of life, economic development, and social welfare.
Bažant and Farha are among 169 new fellows in the 2025 class, which represents 127 research universities and governmental and nonprofit research institutions worldwide. The 2025 class collectively holds more than 5,300 issued US patents and includes recipients of the Nobel Prize, the National Medals of Science and Technology and Innovation, and members of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, among others.
The 2025 class of fellows will be honored and presented their medals by a representative of the United States Patent and Trademark Office at the NAI 15th Annual Conference on June 4 in Los Angeles.