This summer, three Columbia professors will be inducted into the National Academy of Inventors, the highest professional distinction for innovative builders and makers. Columbia’s newest academy fellows are Ioannis (John) Kymissis, a professor of electrical engineering whose advances in thin-film electronics have led to the creation of more efficient LED screens, microphones, pressure sensors, and radiation-detection devices; W. Ian Lipkin, a virologist and epidemiologist who has spearheaded the development of new technologies for diagnosing and tracking infectious diseases; and Konstantin Petrukhin, a professor of ophthalmic sciences who invented Tinlarebant, a drug designed to slow or prevent vision loss in patients with conditions like age-related macular degeneration and Stargardt disease. Kymissis, Lipkin, and Petrukhin will be honored at the National Academy of Inventors’ annual conference, to be held from June 23 to 26, in Atlanta.
