Teresa K. Woodruff has been elected to the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). Woodruff is among 912 total NAI fellows, representing more than 250 research universities and governmental and non-profit research institutes.

Election to NAI fellow status is a high professional distinction accorded 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.

This year’s fellows will be inducted April 5, 2018 at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C. as a part of the seventh annual NAI Conference. US Commissioner for Patents Andrew H. Hirshfeld will deliver the ceremony’s keynote address.

Woodruff is the Thomas J. Watkins Memorial Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology in the Feinberg School of Medicine, professor of biomedical engineering in the McCormick School of Engineering, and dean of The Graduate School. She founded and directs the Women’s Health Research Institute and is director of the Center for Reproductive Science. An expert on ovarian biology and reproductive science, she is an internationally recognized leader in fertility research.

Woodruff coined the term “oncofertility” and invented clinical practice management strategies that merged two fields: oncology and fertility. Oncofertility is now a recognized field of medicine and provides reproductive options for young cancer patients around the globe. She has 11 issued patents related to her reproductive research, including for a novel method to connect reproductive tissues in a microfluidic device and a method to increase the fertilization potential of cells in the ovary.

Original article written by Amanda Morris and posted on Northwestern Engineering News.