
with an MRI-compatible robot for treating brain tumors
Gregory Fischer, PhD, William Smith Dean’s Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), has been elected a senior member of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). Fischer is part of the inaugural group of 66 senior members, who represent 37 research universities and government and nonprofit research institutes.
Senior members are active faculty members, scientists, and administrators from NAI member institutions who have demonstrated success with patents, licensing, and commercialization. “They have produced technologies that have brought, or aspire to bring, real impact on the welfare of society,” the organization noted. “Senior members also foster a spirit of innovation within their communities through enhancing an inventive atmosphere at their institutions, while educating and mentoring the next generation of inventors.”
As director of WPI’s Automation and Interventional Medicine Robotics Research Laboratory (AIM Lab), Fischer conducts pioneering research and development in areas that include medical and surgical robotics, wearable assistive and rehabilitative robotics, and socially assistive robotics. He is also director of WPI’s PracticePoint Research & Development facility for medical cyberphysical systems, a membership-based research, development, and commercialization alliance founded to advance healthcare technologies. Now under construction at WPI’s Gateway Park campus, PracticePoint received a $5 million matching grant from the Massachusetts Baker-Polito Administration and the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative in 2017.