U.S. Sen. Chris Coons, who chairs the U.S. Senate Intellectual
Property subcommittee, noted that this type of innovation contributes to
the nation’s strength and competitiveness, and creates the jobs of the
future. He pointed to the patent as “one of the most important features
of America’s young system of invention and innovation.”
“It is such a key step in taking invention and innovation, getting
investment in it, and scaling it and taking it to the commercial
marketplace,” said Sen. Coons. “To those of you who have taken your
inventions, turned them into patents and turned those patents into
sources of funding and innovation, thank you.”
Sen. Coons and U.S. Sen. Tom Carper, who also was in attendance,
cited the transformation of the former Chrysler automotive plant into
the shining innovation community that is developing at UD’s STAR Campus as a bright spot and something that they both played a part in bringing to the state.
“The roles of government are manyfold, and one of those roles is to
foster innovation,” said Carper, who among his many roles in the Senate,
serves as chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee,
leading efforts to protect public health and the environment, tackling
the climate change crisis, and advocating for smart investments in our
nation’s infrastructure.
One example of the important societal progress that can emerge from
academic invention is the hydrogen technologies under development by
Versogen, a spinoff company that grew out of federally funded work by
Yushan Yan, the Henry B. du Pont Chair of Chemical and Biomolecular
Engineering. Versogen is developing electrolyzer technologies to produce
low-cost hydrogen at scale, green energy innovations with the potential
to decarbonize hard-to-abate industries. Yan, who was elected to the
National Academy of Inventors in 2018, also leads UD’s Center for Clean
Hydrogen, which is accelerating sustainable energy technology development and training the workforce of the future.
Kelvin Lee, interim vice president for Research, Scholarship and Innovation, gave a special shout-out to Gonzalo Arce, UD’s newest member of the National Academy of Inventors.
Arce, the Charles Black Evans Professor of Electrical and Computer
Engineering, was elected an NAI Fellow in 2022. He holds 25 patents, for
applications including mapping the planet using laser-based
technologies to more secure and smart QR codes for digital payments.
Arce is one of 13 UD members of the National Academy of Inventors.
Lee also reminded the inventors in attendance that UD is behind them.
“To all of our inventors, I want to underscore that the UD Research
Office is here to support you in your activities, along with the Office of Economic Innovation and Partnerships, which is available to help move your ideas forward and to expand the culture of innovation at UD,” said Lee.