ASU researcher named Fellow of National Academy of Inventors

Arizona State University researcher Jianming Liang, an associate professor at the College of Health Solutions, has been named a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI), the organization announced today.

Election as an NAI Fellow is the highest honor bestowed to academic inventors who have demonstrated a prolific spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on the quality of life, economic development and welfare of society. To date, NAI Fellows hold more than 48,000 U.S. patents, which have generated over 13,000 licensed technologies and companies, and have created more than 1 million jobs. In addition, more than $3 trillion in revenue has been generated based on NAI Fellow discoveries.

Liang studies artificial intelligence and deep learning (DL) for computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) across diseases, modalities and specialties. In addition to his over 100 peer-reviewed publications, Liang holds 33 U.S. patents and has more than 40 patents pending. The products that he helped develop are sold worldwide and benefit millions of people, especially those impacted by cancer and pulmonary embolism. At ASU, he has mentored more than 80 students and received several awards, including the President’s Award for Innovation (2015), a Faculty Innovation Award (2019), a Faculty Mentoring Award (2020) and a MedIA Best Paper Award (2020).

Jianming Liang

“I am humbled and honored to be named a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors,” Liang said. “This recognization celebrates numerous breakthroughs and creative inventions from my team and acknowledges the significance and maturity of AI/DL-enabled CAD tools for clinical practice. I attribute the success to the unmatched culture of innovation that ASU has cultivated and extremely talented students and amazing collaborators with whom I have been privileged to work. I am also grateful to the remarkable mentors I luckily had over the years.”

Deborah Helitzer, dean and professor at the College of Health Solutions, said, “Dr. Liang’s work to develop biomedical imaging technologies that diagnose and treat disease has a direct clinical impact that has improved health outcomes and benefited millions of patients. Through our conversations and his lectures I have attended, I can attest that our students and faculty have an accomplished yet down-to-earth colleague who is generous with his time and provides significant service to the college. He is the role model to which we all aspire.”

The 2021 new fellows will be inducted at the Fellows Induction Ceremony at the 11th annual meeting of the National Academy of Inventors in June in Phoenix.

The complete list of 2021 NAI Fellows is available to view online.

The National Academy of Inventors is a member organization comprising U.S. and international universities, and governmental and non-profit research institutes, with over 4,000 individual inventor members and fellows spanning more than 250 institutions worldwide.