Of the >8 million total patents issued by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), inventors of only 10 to 12 patents are annually elected to the National Inventors Hall of Fame (NIHF). Only ~500 individuals (living and dead) are inductees in the NIHF over the past 42 years of selection. Names include Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla, Claude Shannon, Charles Townes, and the like. Ashok Gadgil was inducted in the NIHF on May 20-21, 2014 for the invention of UV Waterworks, a low-cost water disinfection device. A “Wall of Fame” at the USPTO has a tile for each inductee in the NIHF. Next to Ashok’s tile are those of Steve Jobs, Brad Parkinson (inventor of the GPS), and Art Fry (inventor of PostIt notes). For more about the NIHF, and each of the inductees, please visit this link.
