Dr. Joseph Izatt (BME) was recently named to the National Academy of Inventors (NAI) 2017 class of Fellows in December 2017. The NAI was founded in 2010 to recognize inventors with patents issued from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, enhance the visibility of academic technology and innovation, encourage the disclosure of intellectual property, mentor innovative students, and translate the inventions of its members to benefit society. Izatt’s research focuses on the application of optical technologies for non-invasive, high-resolution imaging and sensing in living biological tissues. He is considered one of the leading experts on optical coherence tomography (OCT), a medical imaging technique that allows researchers to peer beneath the surface of tissue to diagnose and treat diseases. Izatt’s lab creates systems for use in noninvasive medical diagnostics, in-vivo tomographic microscopes, and high-throughput three-dimensional small animal imaging systems for genomics studies.
Izatt developed the first use of a research hand-held spectral domain OCT system for infant examination and the first intra-operative OCT-guided ophthalmic surgical system.
There are 912 fellows total (including 11 from Duke), with a median of 20 patents held per person.
