UTA’s Woods and Weidanz named to NAI

The National Academy of Inventors (NAI) has elected Jon Weidanz and Robert Woods, two professors from The University of Texas at Arlington, as fellows.

Weidanz is vice president for research and innovation and holds research positions in bioengineering and kinesiology. He also is a member of the Bone and Muscle Research Center and the Multi-Professional Center for Health Informatics at UTA.

Woods is a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, the advisor of the Formula Society of Automotive Engineering (FSAE) student racing team and the holder of the Dr. Bob Woods Chair in Automotive Engineering Endowed by Paul Andrews Jr.

“UTA has an exceptional inventor support network,” said Kate Miller, vice president for research and innovation. “The University provides the innovation bedrock that helps these educators become outstanding inventors in their fields.”

Woods, who has been at the University since the 1970s, said he is honored at the election.

“We’ve come up with quite a few innovations in having students build a racecar from scratch every year,” Woods said. “One of the innovations was adding moveable wings to reduce drag.” Another was to build all-electric formula cars.

UTA’s FSAE teams have won the intercollegiate competition eight times in the U.S. and earned victories in England, Australia and Japan. UTA typically fields one of the top teams in any competition it enters.

Weidanz co-founded and is the former chief scientist for AbeXXa Biologics Inc., a company breaking new ground in antibody-based therapies that could benefit much larger numbers of cancer patients.

He has broad experience and interest in biotechnology, with particular knowledge and expertise in immunology and immunotherapy research and product development. He has more than 60 peer-reviewed articles, book chapters and published conference proceedings and has been an invited speaker at more than 50 conferences, universities and companies. He founded the North Texas Genome Center at UTA in 2018 and served as its director until 2022. Translational research of his discoveries in immunotherapies for treating cancer are currently being pursued by his former company, AbeXXa Biologics, which recently was acquired by Boehringer Ingelheim.

“It’s an honor to join the ranks of so many outstanding scientists who are already fellows of the NAI,” Weidanz said. “I’m grateful to my family for their patience with me over the years, as well as my colleagues at UTA who continue to support and inspire my own research interests.”

The 2023 class of NAI fellows has 162 academic inventors representing NAI’s foundational and continuing commitment to diversifying innovation on all levels, with underrepresented inventors composing 33% of this year’s class. The new slate of fellows also has regional diversity, as they hail from 35 U.S. states and 10 countries, exemplifying the academy’s belief that great innovators can be found everywhere.

“This year’s class of NAI fellows showcases the caliber of researchers that are found within the innovation ecosystem. Each of these individuals are making significant contributions to both science and society through their work,” said Paul R. Sanberg, president of the NAI. “This new class, in conjunction with our existing fellows, are creating innovations that are driving crucial advancements across a variety of disciplines and are stimulating the global and national economy in immeasurable ways as they move these technologies from lab to marketplace.”

Since its inception in 2012, the NAI fellows program has grown to include 1,898 exceptional researchers and innovators, who hold more than 63,000 U.S. patents and 13,000 licensed technologies. NAI fellows are known for the societal and economic impact of their inventions, contributing to major advancements in science and consumer technologies. Their innovations have generated more than $3 trillion in revenue and generated 1 million jobs