Sode named National Academy of Inventors Fellow

Dr. Koji Sode, William R. Kenan Jr. Professor in the UNC/NC State Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering, has been named a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI).

The academic inventors elected to the rank of NAI Fellow are named for their demonstration of prolific spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on quality of life, economic development and the welfare of society. It is the highest professional distinction accorded to an academic inventor.

Sode received a B.S. in chemical engineering, M.S. in electrochemistry and Ph.D. in engineering at Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech.).

During his graduate student period, he engaged as a research fellow at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zürich Biotechnology Institute. He started his academic appointment as research associate (assistant professor) at Tokyo Institute of Technology, following at the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, The University of Tokyo. In 1990, he was promoted as an associated professor, at the Department of Biotechnology and Life Science, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology. In 2000, he was promoted as full professor in the Department of Biotechnology and Life Science.

He has been engaged in the variety of research projects with many pronounced international industrial partners, especially in the field of the development of novel biodevices for medical application. He also launched a start-up company, Ultizyme International Ltd., and serving as the science and technology advisor.

He is the author of more than 290 peer reviewed papers and holds numerous international patents relating on biosensing technologies.

Sode’s research interests include pharmacoengineering, biomedical microdevices, biomolecular engineering for biomedical engineering, and the creation of the innovative biomedical devices including biosensing systems.

Sode is the eighth faculty member in the College Engineering named as an NAI Fellow.