Norbert Pelc, ScD, Named 2020 Fellow of National Academy of Inventors

February 4, 2021

Dr. Norbert Pelc, Boston Scientific Applied Biomedical Engineering Professor and Professor of Radiology, Emeritus, has been named a 2020 fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). NAI fellow status is the highest professional distinction accorded to academic inventors. The program recognizes academic inventors who have demonstrated a prolific spirit of innovation by creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on quality of life, economic development and the welfare of society.

Dr. Pelc’s research interests are in the physics, engineering, and mathematics of diagnostic imaging and the development of applications of this imaging technology. His current work focuses on computed tomography, specifically in methods to improve the information content and image quality and to reduce the radiation dose from these examinations. He holds a doctorate and master degrees in Medical Radiological Physics from Harvard University and a BS from the University of Wisconsin in Madison. He served on the first National Advisory Council of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering of the NIH. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine, the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering, and of SPIE. He was Department Chair of Bioengineering at Stanford from 2012-2017. 

Founded in 2010, the National Academy of Inventors is a member organization comprising of U.S. and international universities and government and non-profit research institutes. With the election of the 2020 class, there are now more than 1,400 NAI fellows.

Dr. Pelc will be inducted in June 2021 at the NAI’s 10th anniversary meeting in Tampa, Florida.