Michael Dirr named NAI Fellow

TAMPA, Fla.-- Dr. Michael A. Dirr was honored by the National Academy of Inventors (NAI), which recently named him as one of the 170 distinguished innovators to NAI Fellow status. According to University of Georgia research, Dirr is the first plant breeder to receive this honor.

Election to NAI Fellow status is a high professional distinction accorded to academic inventors who have demonstrated a highly 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.

Dirr is a Mercer scholar, international author of 13 books and more than 300 publications, and considered one of the green industry’s most celebrated plant experts. A professor of horticulture at the University of Georgia, his teaching, lectures, seminars, garden study tours and plant introduction programs have contributed to industry awareness, and his book “Dirr’s Hardy Trees and Shrubs” is the bestselling title of its genre. He is also a contributing editor for Nursery Management.

Dirr has received numerous awards and honors during his career, including the Liberty Hyde Bailey Medal from the American Horticulture Society. He earned both his bachelor’s and master’s at The Ohio State University, and a doctorate in plant physiology at the University of Massachusetts.

Those named yesterbring the total number of NAI Fellows to 414, representing more than 150 prestigious research universities and governmental and non-profit research institutions.

Included among all of the NAI Fellows are 61 presidents and senior leadership of research universities and non-profit research institutes, 208 members of the other National Academies (NAS, NAE, IOM), 21 inductees of the National Inventors Hall of Fame, 16 recipients of the U.S. National Medal of Technology and Innovation, 10 recipients of the U.S. National Medal of Science, 21 Nobel Laureates, 11 Lemelson-MIT prize recipients, 112 AAAS Fellows, and 62 IEEE Fellows, among other awards and distinctions.

Collectively, the 414 NAI Fellows hold nearly 14,000 U.S. patents.

The NAI Fellows will be inducted on Mar. 20, 2015, as part of the 4th Annual Conference of the National Academy of Inventors at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Deputy Commissioner for Patent Operations Andrew Faile will be providing the keynote address for the induction ceremony. Fellows will be presented with a special trophy, newly designed medal, and rosette pin in honor of their outstanding accomplishments.

To read the full list of NAI fellows, click here.