Arup K. SenGupta, the P.C. Rossin Professor of Environmental Engineering at Lehigh University, was officially recognized as the 2014 Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI) on 20th March 2015 at the Beckman Auditorium of California Institute of Technology. The event was organized in concert with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Altogether 170 members were inducted as NAI fellows during the ceremony and of them, 73 were members of the National Academy and two, Shuji Nakamura and David Baltimore, were former Nobel Prize winners. Election to NAI Fellow status is a distinction “accorded to academic inventors who have demonstrated a 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.” Over 180 universities in the US are affiliated with NAI.
SenGupta was recognized for his invention and commercialization of the hybrid anion exchanger or HAIX-NanoFe for arsenic mitigation. Two US manufacturers, Layne Christensen Inc. and Purolite Co., produce HAIX-NanoFe sorbents and over two million pounds of the material are currently in use in six countries including the US providing arsenic-safe water to more than one million people. The same material is also being used to treat radioactive cooling water in the condemned nuclear powerplant in Fukushima, Japan destroyed by 2011 tsunami. Professionals and researchers are currentlyusing the HAIX material to remove and recover phosphate from various waste water sources.
On April 20, 2015 at the US Chamber of Commerce in Washington, D.C., SenGupta was the recipient of the 2015 IP Champion Award in an event commemorating World IP Day celebrating economic growth through innovation. SenGupta is the recipient of eight US Patents.
SenGupta was recognized for his invention and commercialization of the hybrid anion exchanger or HAIX-NanoFe for arsenic mitigation. Two US manufacturers, Layne Christensen Inc. and Purolite Co., produce HAIX-NanoFe sorbents and over two million pounds of the material are currently in use in six countries including the US providing arsenic-safe water to more than one million people. The same material is also being used to treat radioactive cooling water in the condemned nuclear powerplant in Fukushima, Japan destroyed by 2011 tsunami. Professionals and researchers are currentlyusing the HAIX material to remove and recover phosphate from various waste water sources.
On April 20, 2015 at the US Chamber of Commerce in Washington, D.C., SenGupta was the recipient of the 2015 IP Champion Award in an event commemorating World IP Day celebrating economic growth through innovation. SenGupta is the recipient of eight US Patents.