DeSimone awarded $500,000 “Oscar for Inventors” for Materials, Life Sciences Innovations
A North Carolina State University engineering professor is the winner of this year’s $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize for his pioneering inventions, entrepreneurial success and commitment to mentorship.
Dr. Joseph M. DeSimone, William R. Kenan Jr. Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering at NC State and Chancellor’s Eminent Professor of Chemistry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, was recognized for his groundbreaking work in environmentally friendly manufacturing and promising applications in gene therapy, drug delivery and medical devices.
The $500,000 prize – sometimes called the “Oscar for inventors” – is handed out by the Lemelson-MIT Program, which recognizes outstanding inventors for their contributions to society. DeSimone will accept the prize today in Cambridge, Mass.
DeSimone’s inventions include a breakthrough manufacturing process in which supercritical carbon dioxide is substituted for a potentially harmful acid to produce a class of high-performance plastics called fluoropolymers. The process produces an enhanced-performance material with a range of applications in data communications, semiconductors and other industrial markets. DuPont has licensed the process and built facilities in Fayetteville based on the technology.
DeSimone also collaborated with Dr. Richard Stack, a cardiologist at Duke University, to develop technology for a fully bioabsorbable, polymer-based stent. The stent, an alternative to metal stents used to keep arteries open, could potentially improve the long-term safety of coronary stents and save patients’ lives. The stent is the first of its kind to enter clinical trials.
DeSimone is now taking a technique from the microelectronics industry and applying it to medicine. His PRINT (Particle Replication in Non-wetting Templates) technology makes tiny, controllable engineered particles that can diagnose and treat disease. He helped form Liquidia Technologies to expand the technology’s reach.
The researcher was also recognized for his commitment to education, having mentored more than 130 students and research associates.
The Lemelson-MIT Program was founded by Jerome H. Lemelson and his wife, Dorothy, in 1994. Jerome Lemelson was among U.S. history’s most prolific inventors, amassing more than 550 patents from 1953 until his death in 1997.
DeSimone joined the NC State faculty in 1994 and the UNC-Chapel Hill faculty in 1990. He received his PhD in chemistry from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in 1990.
