Wellington Pham, PhD, professor of Radiology and Radiological Sciences and Biomedical Engineering at Vanderbilt University, has been named a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI).
Pham is a leading expert in molecular probe design. His groundbreaking work involves the innovative integration of medicinal chemistry with advanced biomarker imaging techniques to advance the early detection and treatment of disease.
Pham is among nine current and two former members of the Vanderbilt University faculty who are fellows of the NAI. He is one of 170 fellows in the Class of 2024 who will be inducted into the academy during its 14th annual conference June 23-26 in Atlanta.
According to the academy, election to fellow status “is the highest professional distinction accorded solely to academic inventors … who have demonstrated a prolific 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.”
Pham is the lead inventor of several U.S. patents/patent applications in molecular probe chemistry for use in fluorescence resonance energy transfer imaging, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and positron emission tomography (PET).
Pham earned his doctoral degree in medicinal chemistry from the University of Toledo in 2000. After completing fellowships in PET chemistry and molecular imaging at UCLA and Harvard, respectively, he joined the Vanderbilt faculty in 2006.
He has organized seven international conferences on molecular imaging and has been invited to speak about his research at 54 conferences and seminars worldwide. His work comprises nearly 100 scientific articles, and he is the author of the textbook “Principles of Molecular Probe Design and Applications.”
In 2019, Pham received the Distinguished Investigator Award from the American Academy for Radiology and Biomedical Imaging Research. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Royal Society of Chemistry, and the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists.
Established in 2012, the NAI Fellows program includes 2,068 academic inventors, who collectively hold more than 68,000 U.S. patents. Their innovations have led to the creation of 20,000 licensed technologies, 4,000 companies, and 1.2 million jobs, and generated more than $3.2 trillion in revenue, according to the academy.
The other NAI fellows who are current members of the Vanderbilt faculty and their year of election are:
- James Crowe Jr., MD, Ann Scott Carell Professor, University Distinguished Professor of Pediatrics and Chemistry, and director, Vanderbilt Vaccine Center (2017)
- Philippe Fauchet, PhD, Bruce and Bridgitt Evans Dean of Engineering, Emeritus, and Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering (2016)
- Daniel Fleetwood, PhD, Olin H. Landreth Professor of Engineering, and professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and of Physics (2023)
- Michael Goldfarb, PhD, H. Fort Flowers Professor of Mechanical Engineering
professor of Electrical Engineering and of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, and director of the Center for Intelligent Mechatronics (2020) - John Gore, PhD, Hertha Ramsey Cress Professor of Medicine, University Distinguished Professor of Radiology & Radiological Sciences, Biomedical Engineering, and Physics & Astronomy, and director, Vanderbilt University Institute of Imaging Science (2015)
- Craig Lindsley, PhD, William K. Warren Jr. Professor of Medicine. University Distinguished Professor of Pharmacology, Biochemistry, and Chemistry, and director of the Warren Center for Neuroscience Drug Discovery (2018)
- Anita Mahadevan-Jansen, PhD, Orrin H. Ingram Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Professor of Neurological Surgery and of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, and director of the Biophotonics Center at Vanderbilt (2019)
- John McLean, PhD, Stevenson Professor of Chemistry and director, Center for Innovative Technology (2021)
Harold (Hal) Moses, MD, professor of Cancer Biology, emeritus, and founding director of the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, was elected an NAI fellow in 2016.
Michael King, PhD, former chair of the Vanderbilt Department of Biomedical Engineering, was elected in 2022. Since 2024, he has been a member of the Bioengineering faculty at Rice University.
