By Stephen Greenwell

NAI Fellow

Hao Huang, Ph.D., a Distinguished Adjunct Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Cullen College of Engineering, was officially inducted as a Fellow of the academy during the NAI’s annual meeting in June. Election to the NAI Fellow is the highest professional distinction accorded solely to academic inventors. 

Huang, a member of the National Academy of Engineering, started at the University of Houston in July 2021. He retired from the position of Technology Chief of G.E. Aviation — Electrical Power in 2020 after 33 years of serving in various aviation and land vehicle electrification industries. In addition to NAE membership, Huang is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) as of 2013, and a Fellow of the Society of Automotive and Aerospace Engineers (SAE) as of 2014. He was also the winner of 2019 IEEE Transportation Technologies Award.

NAI Senior Member

Triantafillos J. (Lakis) Mountziaris, Ph.D., professor and chair of the William A. Brookshire Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering in the Cullen College of Engineering, has been elected to Senior Member status of the National Academy of Inventors. Mountziaris joined the Cullen College of Engineering in 2021, as department chairman for the William A. Brookshire Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. With more than 30 years of experience as a professor between UMass-Amherst and the State University of New York at Buffalo, he has overseen and supported 24 doctoral advisees, and received authorship credit for more than 80 research papers and received three U.S. patents for his research work. Mountziaris is recognized for innovations related to scalable synthesis of quantum dots and development for a new class of optical biosensors.