Around the Quad

Patent power

CWRU is inventing and innovating at a world-class rate

For the third consecutive year, Case Western Reserve ranked among the top 25 patent-producing universities in the world, indicating that campus research is translating into innovations and inventions.

A survey by the National Academy of Inventors and the Intellectual Property Owners Association found that the rate of inventing at CWRU in 2020 ranked the university 21st among the world’s 100 leading research universities. CWRU also ranked 21st in 2019, down slightly from 17th in 2018.

Its collection of patents, primarily connected to the Case School of Engineering and the CWRU School of Medicine, has risen every year since 2015.

“The increasing number of patents is phenomenal,” said Michael Hagg, executive director of CWRU’s Office of Research and Technology Management.

He credits translational research programs, like the Case-Coulter Translational Research Partnership, which help research teams to include commercialization efforts in their projects. He added that the rising rate of invention coincides with more companies spinning out of campus.

Recent examples of impactful startups include Path Robotics, a robotic welding company founded by a pair of engineering students using technology they developed at Sears think[box]. (See related story in this issue on page 20).

The annual survey counts U.S. utility patents, the primary patent for inventions, awarded by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. It found that CWRU secured 105 utility patents in 2020. That’s more than double the number to spring from campus in 2016. The rate of patenting places CWRU ahead of the University of Chicago, Cornell, Duke, and Vanderbilt universities.

CWRU global patent rankings Year Rank Patents

2015 52 41 2016 46 52 2017 43 53 2018 17 95 2019 21 89 2020 21 105

Lordy, lordy look who’s 140

With the aid of alumni, KSL plans to commemorate Case history

The Case School of Engineering began as the Case School of Applied Science in 1880, launched by a visionary gift from the estate of Leonard Case Jr. But classes actually began in the Case home in downtown Cleveland the next year, September 1881. That makes this fall the 140th anniversary of the start of classes.

And that, says the Kelvin Smith Library, is something to commemorate.

The library formed a project team that has been pulling together pieces of Case history — in the form of archival documents, maps, stories and photographs — to populate a multimedia website that will tell the story of one of the nation's oldest schools of engineering.

Daniela Solomon, KSL’s Research Services Librarian for Engineering and Chemistry and the project leader, said the website remains a work in progress but is good enough to launch. She hopes that Case alumni will go to https://scalar.case. edu/caseschool/index and begin to gain a deeper understanding of what they are a part of.

“I want the alumni to be able to discover,” she said.

A live presentation will soon animate the online resource. Solomon’s team includes two alumni with a deep knowledge of Case: former Dean Tom Kicher ’59, MS ’62, PhD ’65, and Emeritus Professor Frank Merat ’72, MS ’75, PhD ’78. They plan to share some of the project’s findings at a presentation during Homecoming weekend.

The Case legacy with Kicher & Merat: Highlights from 140 years of Case history begins at 1:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 23, in Nord Hall and will also be live streamed. Learn more at www.casealumni.org/homecoming.

Prize that matters

Cyrus Taylor, renowned as a dean, wins the Wittke award for teaching

Former Dean Cyrus Taylor admits to feeling some trepidation when he walked into a classroom in the spring of 2020 and faced a roomful of students, having not taught a class in years. He need not have worried.

Those students helped him to receive the 2021 Carl F. Wittke Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, one of the highest honors Case Western Reserve bestows upon a teacher.

“This one is special,” said Taylor, the Albert A. Michelson Professor in Physics. “I can’t tell you how much it means to me after having served as dean for so long.”

Taylor arrived at CWRU in 1988 and was chair of the physics department from 2005 until he was appointed Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences in 2006. When he stepped down in 2018, he was known as “dean of deans,” one of the most experienced administrators on campus.

Taylor’s return to the faculty ranks was no walk into the classroom. The pandemic forced professors and students to adapt to remote learning only weeks into the spring semester. As reported in The Daily, the university’s online news source, Taylor impressed students with his knowledge of physics, his humbleness and his dedication.

“I most value his empathy,” one student nominator wrote. “Particularly in the midst of the pandemic, considering the intrinsic difficulty of this subject, he treated us more as colleagues than students.”

“If I ever become a professor,” another wrote, “I’m going to try my hardest to be like Professor Taylor.”

A changing serenade

Female voices herald a new day for the venerable Case Men’s Glee Club

There’s nothing in the bylaws that says members of the Case Men’s Glee Club must be men. That’s allowed an historic choir to add new voices and elevate a popular tenor to the presidency.

Christine Pan, a fourth-year computer science and music double major, is the first female president of the Case Men’s Glee Club in its 124 years. This fall, she assumed the leadership of the oldest active student group at Case Western Reserve University.

As she staffed the Glee Club’s table at the annual Student Activities Fair August 23, Pan took her pioneering status in stride. She’s aware of the club’s rich history, but she’s also eager to talk about its members and how much they love to sing.

“I sang tenor in high school” in Parsippany, New Jersey, she explained. “I thought this would be a really good group to join and it has been. I just fell in love with the glee club.”

Founded at the Case School of Applied Science in 1897, the Case Men’s Glee Club became one of a small number of collegiate glee clubs to tour domestically and abroad. Its tradition of barbershop-style harmonies and popular music successfully spanned the generations. In 2018, the club became an academic ensemble within the Department of Music.

In fall 2019, Pan nervously approached an open rehearsal. Not knowing anyone, she took along a female friend. They need not have worried, she said. Both were warmly welcomed and enthralled.

“It was instantaneous,” she said. “That first rehearsal, I was like, ‘This is it. This is amazing.’”

She served as the club’s publicity manager and then as its business manager before members this year voted her president. There are several other women in the choir, including two more on the executive board — business manager Ruth Cavano and publicity manager Adaeze Izuegbunam — and likely more to come.

“The club has been trying to become more diverse,” said Gavin O’Keefe, the club’s treasurer. “We’re welcoming of anyone who loves to sing and who wants to be a member.”

The Case Men’s Glee Club is scheduled to perform its fall concert Nov. 5. Look for details at www.caseglee.com.

New leader for new times

Joe Fakult ’90 assumes the presidency of an alumni association on the rise

Joe Fakult’s long record of service to the Case Alumni Association hit its zenith July 1, when he assumed the presidency of the Board of Directors. Fakult ’90, a mechanical engineer and product line lead for Safran Electrical & Power, brings a wealth of experience to the task.

He’s a recognizable figure to the many young alumni who received scholarships from the Case Alumni Foundation. Fakult, who embarked upon a two-year term as president, chaired the scholarship committee for nearly a decade.

He succeeds Sunniva Collins, MS ’91, PhD ’95, who steps into the role of Immediate Past President.

Fakult said Collins and other officers left a strong organization that is emerging from the coronavirus pandemic with momentum. The endowment reached $86 million in August. Board members are active on key committees, Fakult observed, and generous donors continue to support the organization. The CAA, in turn, has increased its support of the school and its students.

“The Case Alumni Association seems to be in a very good place, with a skilled staff, and well-governed by a qualified board,” he said. “Coming in as president, it’s really a matter of preserving the best things that we do and continuing to improve.” The Case Alumni Association was created in 1885 by the first five graduates of the Case School of Applied Science.

A new slate of officers also started twoyear terms June 30. They are:

• 1st Vice President: Brian Casselberry ’95, Senior Lead Engineer, Swagelok

• 2nd Vice President: Matt Crowley ’08, Chief Executive Officer, Signal Cortex

• 3rd Vice President: Curtis Grant ’11,

MEM ’12, Product Manager, Progressive Insurance

• Treasurer: Frank Merat ’72, MS ’75,

PhD ’78, Emeritus Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering & Computer

Science, Case School of Engineering

• Assistant Treasurer: Hillary Emer ’07, MSE ’07, Principal, Slalom Consulting

• Secretary: Steve Simmons ’79, MS ’82,

PhD ’86, Senior Manager of Solutions

Engineering, the Stefanini Group

Academic trailblazer

Illinois State chooses a Case-trained scientist as its first woman president

When she became president of Illinois State University in July, Terri Goss Kinzy, PhD ’91, embraced her status as a role model. The university’s 20th president, she is the first woman to hold the title.

“It's important for everyone to see that potential exists to go into leadership and to bring your voice and have it heard," Kinzy told WGLT-FM, the NPR station broadcasting from campus. “It's very exciting.”

Kinzy emerged from a field of more than 50 qualified candidates, university officials said. She brings a strong research background to a 20,000-student university that is hoping to raise its science profile and attract and retain more instate students. Previously, she was the vice president for research and innovation at Western Michigan University.

Since earning her doctorate in biochemistry at Case Institute of Technology, Kinzy has received international recognition for her work in understanding how mRNAs direct the way in which proteins are made. A professor of biological sciences, she has been published and cited in numerous academic and professional outlets. In 2017, she was named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Kinzy told the radio station that she will let students guide her as she charts the future of Illinois State.

“I believe that students are a great pulse of where our university is, but also a pulse of where our country is and where our future is,” she said. “They are often thinking about other different things than we are because they are seeing the future of their lives and their careers.”