Three Penn Engineers Named 2025 NAI Fellows

Boon Thau Loo, RCA Professor in Computer and Information Science (CIS) and Penn Engineering’s Senior Associate Dean for Graduate Education and Global Initiatives, André DeHon, Boileau Professor of Electrical Engineering in Electrical and Systems Engineering, and Haim H. Bau, Richard H. & S. L. Gabel Professor of Mechanical Engineering in Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics (MEAM), have been named 2025 Fellows of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI).

With more than 2,000 Fellows across over 300 universities and research institutes worldwide, the NAI community collectively holds tens of thousands of issued U.S. patents, which have enabled thousands of licensed technologies and companies and created millions of jobs.

The NAI Fellows Program recognizes academic inventors whose work has led to outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on quality of life, economic development and societal welfare. Election to NAI Fellow is widely regarded as the highest professional distinction awarded solely to academic inventors.

Meet the 2025 Penn Engineering NAI Fellows

Boon Thau Loo

Loo’s research focuses on distributed data-management systems, Internet-scale query processing and applying data-centric techniques and formal methods to networked systems. He is helping to build the smarter, safer digital infrastructure that powers everything from cloud services to cybersecurity tools used around the world.

“I have been fortunate to pursue ideas that grew from research prototypes into real-world technologies, including two startups, thanks to the Penn Engineering environment that supports innovation,” says Loo. “Our work also extends into academic innovation through the development of online master’s programs, which open new pathways for students around the world. None of this would have been possible without the tireless work and dedication of our staff, faculty colleagues and students.”

André DeHon

DeHon leads the Implementation of Computation research group, where he studies how to build the physical hardware that makes modern computing possible, from the chips inside our phones to the powerful systems driving AI. His work in hardware architecture, reconfigurable computing and hardware–software co-design explores how computers can be made more flexible, secure and energy efficient. 

“I am deeply honored to be named a National Academy of Inventors Fellow,” says DeHon. “It is gratifying to see my early work, more than three decades ago, on programmable accelerators help shape today’s AI hardware, and to have our long-standing research in hardware security recognized as essential to building trustworthy computers. Innovation drives engineering forward, and I’m grateful to the colleagues, students and mentors at Penn Engineering who make this work possible. This recognition is both humbling and inspiring, and it reaffirms the importance of translating discovery into real-world impact.”

Haim H. Bau

Bau’s work spans micro- and nano-fluidics, lab-on-a-chip systems and advanced diagnostic platforms that integrate biology, chemistry and engineering. His team develops miniature devices capable of detecting pathogens, monitoring environmental conditions and performing complex medical tests at extremely small scales and low cost. Their innovations have contributed to next-generation tools for rapid disease detection and accessible point-of-care diagnostics. Bau is helping bring advanced health monitoring technologies out of specialized labs and into everyday settings, empowering faster, earlier and more accessible diagnostics for people around the world.

“I am deeply honored to be named an NAI Fellow,” says Bau. “And, I share this recognition with the extraordinary students, postdoctoral fellows and colleagues I have been fortunate to work alongside throughout my career. Their creativity, hard work and unwavering commitment have made our achievements possible.”

The collective achievements of these three Penn Engineering NAI Fellows — spanning distributed systems, mechanical engineering, hardware and reconfigurable computing — underscore the depth and breadth of innovation happening across the School. They join a global network of academic inventors whose work drives advances in technology, creates new companies and fosters societal impact.

Read the NAI press release on this year’s Fellows and learn more about the researchers’ work on their websites: Boon Thau Loo, André DeHon and Haim H. Bau.

Three Penn Engineers, Boon Thau Loo (top left), André DeHon (top right) and Haim Bau (bottom) have been named 2025 NAI Fellows, marking a significant milestone in their careers at Penn and beyond.