Brashears Chosen as National Academy of Inventors Fellow

 

Mindy Brashears, a professor of food microbiology and food safety in the Texas Tech University Department of Animal and Food Sciences, has been named a fellow to the National Academy of Inventors.

The fellowship is awarded to academic inventors who demonstrate an enhanced spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a significant impact on quality of life, economic development and welfare of society.

"I am honored to have been selected as a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors," Brashears said. "The support I have received from Texas Tech University over the past few years has enabled me to develop my ideas into patents and ultimately into products that have been commercialized. I am genuinely thankful to the university, the administration and fellow scientists and students for the support they have given to me that made this recognition possible."

Those selected as fellows by the NAI are named inventors on U.S. patents and were nominated by their peers for outstanding contributions to innovation in areas such as patents and licensing, innovative discovery and technology, having a significant impact on society and the support and enhancement of innovation.

"Dr. Brashears is very deserving of this honor," said Michael Orth, chairman of the Department of Animal and Food Sciences. "She is an extremely bright and creative scientist with an entrepreneurial spirit."

Brashears, a worldwide expert in food safety issues both in pre-harvest and post-harvest environments, is also the director of the International Center for Food Industry Excellence at Texas Tech. The center works to provide the world with a more secure food supply through innovation, research and technology transfer across the four pillars of food security – access, availability, stability and utilization.

Brashears, who earned her bachelor's degree in food technology from Texas Tech's College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, also directs extensive research efforts into reducing the occurrences of pathogens in food and its resistance to drugs and other methods meant reduce it.

Brashears, who is also a faculty member on the Texas Tech Center for Biodefense, Law and Public Policy in the Texas Tech School of Law, becomes one of 757 NAI fellows representing 229 research universities and government and nonprofit research institutes.

"Being selected as a fellow for any professional organization is an honor and a mark of success and excellence for an individual's career and work ethic," said Steve Fraze, interim dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources. "Dr. Brashears' selection as an NAI fellow is testimony to this."

With the addition of the new fellows, NAI fellows now are credited with more than 26,000 patents.

She will be inducted with the other new fellows on April 6, 2017, as part of the NAI's sixth annual convention at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston. The new fellows will be presented with a special award, medal and rosette pin. They will also be recognized in The Chronicle of Higher Education in January 2017 and in upcoming issues of Inventors Digest and Technology and Innovation.