Dr. Ravi Kumar, Distinguished University Research Professor and founding director of the Center for Convergent Bioscience and Medicine, has been elected as a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors.
Known for his significant contributions to the field of rationale design of polyesters and their application to nanomedicines, Kumar was the first to propose and demonstrate non-competitive active targeting nanosystems and apply them to human health and diseases.
“Dr. Kumar is an outstanding research leader at The University of Alabama, and his recognition as a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors is evidence of his success as an entrepreneurial bioscience innovator,” said Dr. Allen Parrish, interim vice president for research and economic development. “We are proud to have him as a key research and innovation leader on our campus, and proud of the recognition that he brings our growing research enterprise.”
Election to the NAI Fellows Program is the highest professional distinction reserved specifically for academic inventors. Inductees demonstrate innovation in creating or facilitating inventions that produce a tangible impact on quality of life, economic development and the welfare of society.
“CCHS congratulates Dr Kumar on this honorific award. Dr Kumar continues to demonstrate innovative and novel approaches in the field of nanoparticle research as related to oral drug delivery,” said Dr. Richard Friend, dean of UA’s College of Community Health Sciences. “The translation of this technology into therapeutic use will have an international impact across a wide variety of diseases across the human lifespan.”
The 2023 Fellow class hails from 118 research universities, governmental and non-profit research institutions worldwide. They collectively hold over 4,600 issued U.S. patents. This year’s class includes three National Inventors Hall of Fame inductees, 22 members of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, and two Nobel Laureates.
“I am blessed to have peers who considered me worthy of a nomination, and grateful to the selection committee for electing me as a fellow, and it goes without saying but I couldn’t have done it without the numerous graduate students, postdocs, undergraduates, and laboratory technicians I work with,” Kumar said. It is indeed an honor to be part this prestigious group of inventors.”
Kumar is co-founder of Peroral Biosciences, Inc. which works to develop and commercialize next generation oral dosage forms of poorly bioavailable peptides, proteins, and other small molecules. In 2023, Kumar was elected a Corresponding Fellow in the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE), Scotland’s national academy of science and letters, and elected a Fellow to the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE).
The 2023 new Fellows will be inducted at the Fellows Induction Ceremony at the 13th Annual Meeting of the National Academy of Inventors in Raleigh, North Carolina, in June 2024. The complete list of NAI Fellows is available online.