Florida’s capacity for innovation is embodied in the individuals who have dedicated their lives to the improvement of our great Sunshine State and the general livelihood of its citizens. To commemorate their achievements, the Florida Inventors Hall of Fame has selected seven new inductees into its 2021 class. They include the inventor of the Segway and an engineering professor who pioneered advances to decontaminate water and develop cures for acute diseases.
Here, we have highlighted the seven inductees from the 2021 class:
- Dean Kamen: Kamen is often referred to as the modern Thomas Edison due to the breadth and scope of his trailblazing inventions, including the Segway. He holds more than 440 U.S. patents, including for several medical devices. A part-time Florida resident, he is President of DEKA Research and Development and founder of FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology). His STEM education efforts through FIRST have impacted over 1 million students nationally and 10,000 students in Florida.
- Norma A. Alcantar: As a Professor of Chemical, Biological and Materials Engineering at the University of South Florida, Alcantar pioneered advances in chemical applications of plant-based molecules to decontaminate water in remote regions without access to drinking water and in areas affected by environmental and natural disasters. She has also developed biomedical solutions based on this technology for new therapies to fight Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and cancer.
- David M. Kotick: Kotick is a Senior Science Technical Manager for Live, Virtual, and Constructive (LVC) simulation and training at the Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division in Orlando. His formative work incorporating digital communications across live and virtual training environments has most notably led to the Digital Radio Management System, the LVC Tactical Bridge, and the Virtual Tactical Bridge Embarked Synthetic Radio.
- Roberta D. Goode: Goode holds breakthrough patents in valve designs for vascular catheters which have improved the field of minimally invasive cardiac procedures and diagnostic methods. She is founder and President of Altrec, LLC of Coral Springs and serves on the faculty of the University of Miami College of Engineering.
- Mark E. Dean: As the former Chief Technology Officer of the Middle East and Africa for IBM, Dean led the creation of the one-gigahertz processor chip and is one of the primary inventors of the Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) “bus,” which permitted plug-in peripheral devices to be connected to computers. He is Professor Emeritus and former Interim Dean of the Tickle College of Engineering and John Fisher Distinguished Professor at the University of Tennessee.
- Susann Keohane: Keohane is an IBM global research leader for the Aging Initiative, a Watson Health & Healthy Aging Innovation Leader, and an IBM Master Inventor. The University of Florida alumna holds patents in autonomous vehicles, and is responsible for advances in artificial intelligence, machine learning and the Internet of Things that are improving technology for people with disabilities and the aging population.
- Rajiv K. Singh: As vice president at Entegris and professor emeritus in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Florida, Singh has been one of the original developers of pulsed laser deposition. He also invented chemical mechanical polishing for mechanically hard advanced electronic materials used in the manufacturing of smart phones, advanced silicon carbide electronics for electric vehicles, 5G communications, and more.
You can read more about these 7 men and women at the Florida Inventors Hall of Fame website. Florida’s innovators help the world keep on turning for the better, all the while making our lives just a little bit easier one invention at a time.
See you on the trial,
Lisa
LMA Newsletter of 5-17-21
