Elizabeth L. Dougherty | United States Patent and Trademark Office Elizabeth L. Dougherty, J.D., is director of Inventor Education, Outreach, and Recognition in the Office of Innovation Development at the USPTO. In this capacity, she develops, implements and supervises programs that support the independent inventor community, small businesses, entrepreneurs and the intellectual property interests of colleges and universities; she supervises the development of outreach programs to women, minority and other underserved communities; she also builds and maintains relationships with state and local governments to promote local programs that support invention and innovation in the United States. Currently, Dougherty is on special assignment to the USPTO’s Office of Government Affairs where she is coordinating outreach to the Congressional Caucuses of the 115th Congress to inform and educate stakeholders about the importance of intellectual property.
Eric R. Fossum | Dartmouth College Eric R. Fossum, Ph.D., is professor at the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth and associate provost for entrepreneurship and technology transfer. While at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory at Caltech, he invented the CMOS image sensor used in billions of camera phones, webcams, DSLRs, swallowable pill cameras, dental x-ray sensors, and many other applications. He co-founded and co-led Photobit to further develop and commercialize the technology which was acquired by Micron. An early Photobit sensor and camera is on display in the National Museum of American History. He later served as CEO of MEMS startup Siimpel Corp. He holds over 160 U.S. patents and has published over 290 technical papers. He is a fellow of the IEEE and OSA, and co-founder and past president of the International Image Sensor Society. He is a Charter Fellow of NAI, member of NAE, inductee of NIHF, and serves as AAAS-Lemelson Invention Ambassador. He is a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth Prize (2017), the highest global honor in engineering, for the creation of digital imaging sensors.
Andrew H. Hirshfeld | United States Patent and Trademark Office Andrew H. Hirshfeld, Esq., is commissioner for patents for the USPTO. He was appointed to the position in July 2015. He leads and manages more than 10,000 employees as the patent organization’s chief operating officer, and manages and directs all aspects of patent operations, examination policy, patent quality management, international patent cooperation, resources and planning, and budget administration. In his previous role as Deputy Commissioner for Patent Examination Policy, Mr. Hirshfeld served as an authority on patent laws, rules, and examining practice and procedure, and provided oversight and direction for the Offices of Petitions, Patent Legal Administration, and the Manual of Patent Examining Procedure. Mr. Hirshfeld previously served as Chief of Staff to the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO. He began his career at the USPTO in 1994 as a Patent Examiner, became a Supervisory Patent Examiner in 2001, and was promoted to the Senior Executive Service in 2008 as a Group Director in Technology Center 2100, Computer Architecture and Software. Mr. Hirshfeld holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Vermont, and a J.D. from Western New England College School of Law.
48 | 2017 NAI Fellows