H. Jonathan Chao Named a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors
NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering Professor Known for High-Performance Switches and Routers
H. Jonathan Chao, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering, has been named a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). Chao’s pioneering work has made possible significant advances in telecommunications systems, network components, network performance and network security, and he holds more than 50 patents on his discoveries.
The NAI cited Chao for his 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.
Most of Chao’s patents were awarded after he left industry for academia in 1992. He focuses on research with applications to real-world problems, and his research led to the 2000 formation of a start-up, Coree Networks in New Jersey, which developed a multi-terabit Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) switch router with carrier-class reliability, and he was instrumental in raising $30 million towards commercialization of the technology.
Chao, who headed the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering from 2004 to 2014, has published more than 200 journal and conference papers and is the author of seminal textbooks on such topics as broadband packet switching technologies, quality of service control in high-speed networks, and high-performance switches and routers. He was named a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for his important contributions to high-speed packet networks and has served multiple times as a guest editor of the IEEE’s Journal on Selected Areas in Communications (JSAC).
Dean of Engineering Katepalli R. Sreenivasan said, “H. Jonathan Chao, as a new fellow of the NAI, exemplifies the spirit of invention, innovation, and entrepreneurship so important to us at the NYU School of Engineering. We consider him an enormous credit to the school and congratulate him upon this recognition.”
Chao is the second faculty member of the NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering to be named an NAI Fellow; in 2013, Kurt H. Becker, vice dean of academic affairs and a professor in the Departments of Applied Physics and Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, was accorded that honor.
The 170 innovators elected to NAI Fellow status in 2014 represent more than 150 prestigious research universities and governmental and non-profit research institutions. Current NAI Fellows include 61 presidents and senior leadership of research universities and non-profit research institutes, 208 members of the other national academies, 21 inductees of the National Inventors Hall of Fame, 16 recipients of the U.S. National Medal of Technology and Innovation, 10 recipients of the U.S. National Medal of Science, 21 Nobel laureates, 11 Lemelson-MIT prize recipients, 107 AAAS fellows, and 62 IEEE fellows, among other awards and distinctions.
The NAI Fellows will be inducted by the Deputy U.S. Commissioner for Patent Operations from the United States Patent and Trademark Office during the 4th Annual Conference of the National Academy of Inventors, on March 20, 2015 at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
Chao’s other honors include the 1987 Telcordia Excellence Award, the 2001 Best Paper Award from the IEEE Transaction on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology, and designation as the 2003 Speaker of the Year by the IEEE New Jersey Coast Section. His most recent research focuses on software defined networking and data center cloud computing.
The National Academy of Inventors® is a 501(c)(3) non-profit member organization comprised of U.S. and international universities, and governmental and non-profit research institutions, with over 3,000 individual inventor members and Fellows spanning more than 200 institutions, and growing rapidly. It was founded in 2010 to recognize and encourage inventors with patents issued from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, enhance the visibility of academic technology and innovation, encourage the disclosure of intellectual property, educate and mentor innovative students, and translate the inventions of its members to benefit society. The NAI edits the multidisciplinary journal, Technology and Innovation, published by Cognizant Communication Corporation (NY). For more information, visit www.academyofinventors.org.
