Congratulations to University of Utah materials science and engineering professor Ashutosh Tiwari, who was elected a National Academy of Inventors (NAI) Senior Member for 2021. He is one of 63 luminaries from 36 institutions named to this year’s class and the only one from Utah.

“It is a great honor to be elected to the National Academy of Inventors as a Senior Member. Though this recognition has been granted to me, it was not possible without the creativity and high-quality research performed by my numerous students and postdocs over the last one and half decades,” said Tiwari. “I am also thankful to the College of Engineering and the University of Utah’s PIVOT Center for providing a conducive environment for high-quality research and innovation.”

NAI Senior Members are chosen from active faculty, scientists, and administrators with success in patents, licensing and commercialization who have produced technologies that have the potential for a real impact on the welfare of society. “Senior Members also foster a spirit of innovation within their communities through enhancing an inventive atmosphere at their institutions, while educating and mentoring the next generation of inventors,” according to the academy.

Tiwari received a master’s in physics from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, and a doctorate degree in experimental condensed matter physics from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. He conducted postdoctoral work at both the University of Delaware and the University of North Carolina.

He joined the University of Utah in 2005 as an assistant professor of materials science and engineering and was named associate professor in 2010. He became a professor in materials science and engineering in 2016 and is head of the Nanostructured Materials Research Laboratory, which is focused on low-dimensional systems such as thin films, nanodots and multi-layered structures.

Tiwari has published more than 130 peer reviewed research articles in journals and holds seven U.S. patents. His papers have received more than six thousand citations. He has received the National Science Foundation CAREER Award, The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society Young Leader Award, the American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund Doctoral New Investigator Award, and the Air Force Summer Faculty Fellowship Award. He also serves on the editorial board of Scientific Reports and was director of the Spintronics group of the National Science Foundation’s Materials Research Science and Engineering Center at the University of Utah.