2024 Inductees

Sylvia Wilson Thomas, Ph.D.

Vice President for Research & Innovation
President & CEO, Research Foundation
University of South Florida

13 U.S. Patents

Sylvia Wilson Thomas, Ph.D. is the Vice President for Research & Innovation at the University of South Florida and President & CEO of the USF Research Foundation, Inc. As a member of the USF president’s and provost’s cabinets, Dr. Thomas directs, manages, and provides vision for USF’s $690M+ research and innovation enterprise. Dr. Thomas also serves as a Professor of Electrical Engineering at USF’s College of Engineering where she leads the Advanced Membrane and Materials Bio and Integration Research laboratory for biomedical, biological, and nano electronic device integration using advanced material systems for membrane technology.

Dr. Thomas’s transformational innovations in miniaturized electronic circuitry and devices and nanotechnologies for sensing applications has opened new pathways for bio and nano electronic device integration using advanced membrane/material systems to meet global technological challenges. Her novel developments, from implantable health monitoring devices to the frontier of wearable electronics, have broad applications from health care to the military.

Prior to joining USF, Dr. Thomas was a research scientist at leading industry companies such as Kimberly Clark Corp, IBM, and Procter & Gamble, and most notably at Bell Labs/Agere Systems/Lucent Technologies, where she began her groundbreaking research in implantable microelectronics.

Dr. Thomas is a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors and Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. She is also the recipient of the 2020 Black Engineer of the Year (BEYA) STEM Educational Leadership Award. Her creative, current affairs-driven projects have been supported by a wide range of funders, from USF seed grants to the National Science Foundation for over $4.8M.

Dr. Thomas also serves as the president of the IEEE’s Engineering in Medicine and Biology Florida West Coast Section; Secretary/Treasurer of the Florida Education Fund; former advisor for the Society of Women Engineers, Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, and National Society of Black Engineers; and an inaugural member of the Board of Directors for Black Girls Code. She is the recipient of the 2023 Top 50 Women Leaders in Education, and 2022 Florida Trend 500 Most Influential Business Leaders.

Dr. Thomas holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from Vanderbilt University, where she was a Patricia Roberts Harris Fellow, and earned her Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Howard University as an NSF Materials Research Center of Excellence Fellow.

Greg Mesaros, MBA

Chief Executive Officer and Chair
Triadex Services

45 U.S. Patents

Greg Mesaros is the Chief Executive Officer and Chair of Triadex Services, an award-winning, data-driven marketing firm he founded over 20 years ago that leverages proprietary data analytics and AI-ML to unlock key growth drivers for businesses. He owns additional companies in the marketing and data sectors, with several listed on Inc. Magazine’s 500/5000 Fastest Growing Private Companies List.

Mr. Mesaros founded his first technology company in 1999 and just one year later was successful in commercializing the first seller-initiated social buying platform. In that same year, he filed his initial patent application that has yielded 45 patents across 10 patent families in such diverse categories as e-commerce, dynamic pricing, mobile devices, predictive analytics, social networks, and location-based marketing. His patents have been cited in numerous patent applications by such companies as Amazon, Google, Microsoft, American Express, eBay, IBM, among others, and he has licensed his inventions to companies across diverse industries.

Mr. Mesaros has served on the board of several non-profits and was a member of the External Advisory Corporate Board for the University of South Florida’s Office of Corporate Partnerships. In 2007, he and his wife, Sonia, founded their family charitable trust supporting local and international charities. His company started the industry’s first Environmental Offset Program that provides funding for the National Forestry Foundation and the Gold Standard Foundation. The program champions equitable, science-based policies that remove carbon directly from the environment through moonshot technologies. His company awards annual scholarships for first generation college students working towards degrees in STEM, entrepreneurship, and business. As a thought leader, Mr. Mesaros frequently shares his insights as a guest speaker at universities. His interactions with students aim to inspire a future generation of inventors and entrepreneurs.

Mr. Mesaros has been recognized for his significant contributions to advancing new technology, including awards ranging from the TechKnow and Manny Awards, to being selected by the State of Ohio, where his company was originally founded, for the E-Commerce Pioneer Award. Mr. Mesaros was named a Top 50 Tampa Business Leader and Purchasing Magazine named him one of the top 40 e-procurement visionaries in the country. Mr. Mesaros earned a B.S. in Business Administration from Bowling Green State University. He went on to graduate Beta Gamma Sigma with an MBA from Loyola Marymount University.

Daniel H. Yeh, Ph.D.

Professor, Civil & Environmental Engineering
University of South Florida

9 U.S. Patents

Daniel H. Yeh, Ph.D. is Professor of Environmental Engineering in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of South Florida, where he leads the Membrane Biotechnology Lab. Dr. Yeh also serves as a Visiting Professor at NASA Kennedy Space Center.

Dr. Yeh is an international leader in the areas of wastewater engineering and recycling; sustainable and resilient infrastructure; renewable bioenergy; global WaSH (water, sanitation, and hygiene); and life support systems for space travel. Dr. Yeh’s research efforts over the past two decades have focused on decentralized small systems for challenging environments at the water/energy/food nexus where sewers are not possible and safely managed drinking water is not readily available. His groundbreaking research led to the development of the NEWgenerator—a portable and self-contained, solar-powered toilet system that converts collected waste into fertilizer nutrients, renewable energy, and clean water to be used for crop irrigation and toilet flushing. The NEWgenerator operates completely off-grid, making it especially effective in areas where clean water and access to consistent power are scarce or unavailable.

Dr. Yeh’s work on the NEWgenerator began in 2011 with a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Grand Challenges Explorations grant and has since been deployed and tested extensively in India and South Africa—not only in informal settlements, where there is no functioning sewer system, but also in schools and housing projects. The Gates Foundation also selected the NEWgenerator to be showcased at the 2018 Reinvented Toilet Expo in Beijing, China.

Additionally, Dr. Yeh and his team launched the start-up company, BioReNEW, Inc., and have collaborated with industry partners worldwide to commercially produce and deploy the NEWgenerator. His inventions also include ICARUS, a floating membrane bioreactor for growing microalgae for biofuel using wastewater as a feedstock. Dr. Yeh is also working with collaborators at NASA to develop innovative wastewater treatment systems for the Artemis Program to establish permanent human presence on the Moon and eventually Mars.

A pioneer in his field, Dr. Yeh has secured over $13M in research funding and has received accolades across industry and academia for his breakthrough technologies, including the 2024 prestigious Association of University Technology Managers Better World Project Award. His work was also recognized by the US Patent and Trademark Office with the Patents for Humanity Award in 2020 and was highlighted in MIT Technology Review’s 10 Breakthrough Technologies of 2019. Additionally, in 2014, the NEWgenerator came in first place for the Cade Museum Prize for Innovation competition. Dr. Yeh is a Senior Member of the National Academy of Inventors and was selected by the American Academy of Environmental Engineers and Scientists as the 2023 Stanley E. Kappe Distinguished Lecturer to tour U.S. universities and share his invention journey of the NEWgenerator with other faculty and students. Dr. Yeh received his undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Michigan; earned his Ph.D. from Georgia Institute of Technology; and conducted postdoctoral research at Stanford University. He is a professional engineer, board certified environmental engineer, and a LEED accredited green building professional.

Peter J. Delfyett, Ph.D.

Pegasus Professor
University Trustee Chair
University Distinguished Professor of Optics, Electrical Engineering & Physics
Director, Townes Laser Institute
University of Central Florida

37 U.S. Patents

Peter J. Delfyett, Ph.D. is Pegasus Professor, University Trustee Chair, and University Distinguished Professor of Optics, Electrical Engineering, and Physics at CREOL, the College of Optics & Photonics at the University of Central Florida, where he also serves as the Director of the Townes Laser Institute.

Throughout his career, Dr. Delfyett has made significant discoveries in the areas of ultrafast optical device physics, semiconductor diode based ultrafast lasers and their application to optical communication and signal processing, including the development of the world’s fastest, most powerful mode-locked semiconductor laser diode. Dr. Delfyett’s groundbreaking innovations also include the demonstration of an optically distributed clocking network for high-speed digital switches and supercomputer applications, and the first observation of the optical nonlinearity induced by the cooling of highly excited electron-hole pairs in semiconductor optical amplifiers.

In addition to his academic pursuits, Delfyett founded Raydiance, Inc., a spin-off company developing high power, ultrafast laser systems, based on his research, for applications in medicine, consumer electronics, defense, material processing, biotechnology, automotive, and other key technological markets.

Dr. Delfyett is a Member of The National Academy of Engineering. He is also a Fellow of the American Physical Society, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, National Academy of Inventors, National Society of Black Physicists, Optica, and the International Society for Optics and Photonics. He is also the recipient of the NSF Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the APS Edward Bouchet Award, the Florida Academy of Science Medal, the Townsend Harris Award, the IEEE Photonics Society’s William Streifer Scientific Achievement Award, and the APS Arthur L. Schawlow Prize in Laser Science.

Dr. Delfyett holds a B.E. in Electrical Engineering from The City College of New York and an M.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from The University of Rochester. He went on to complete both an M.Phil. and a Ph.D. at The Graduate School & University Center of the City University of New York.

Anthony “Tony” Van Heugten

Chief Technology Officer
e-Vision Smart Optics, Inc.

57 U.S. Patents

Anthony “Tony” Van Heugten is the Chief Technology Officer of e-Vision Smart Optics, Inc., a leading electronic lens modulation company that designs and fabricates optics that control and shape light with no moving parts.

Mr. Van Heugten’s industry-disrupting innovations are in electronic liquid crystal lenses, ophthalmic diagnostic devices, eye surgery instruments, and next generation human vision correction; and include products from resistive bridges for practical electro-active contact lenses to dynamic focusing elements for augmented reality headsets to electro-optic phoropters for performing vision examinations. His research has led to the development of liquid crystal tunable lens technology for intra-ocular lenses, remote controlled contact lenses and eyewear, and virtual and augmented reality devices. Moreover, Mr. Van Heugten’s work on liquid-crystal-based lenses is being commercialized in Japan by Mitsui Chemicals as the TouchFocus^TM instantaneously adjustable eyewear for near- and far-sighted vision.

Prior to joining e-Vision, Mr. Van Heugten co-founded and served as the Chief Technology Officer of WaveTec Vision Systems, Inc. where he invented a miniature wavefront sensor coupled to a surgical microscope that measured the optical power of the eye in real time during cataract eye surgery, resulting in better surgical outcomes. Wavetec was sold to Alcon Laboratories in 2014. Since then, over three million surgeries have been performed with these sensors.

Over the course of his career, Mr. Van Heugten has commercialized or licensed a number of his innovations including products for interventional cardiology (MedClose), vascular access (Johnson & Johnson), and laser-vision-correction lasers (Summit Technology). He has also led projects sponsored by NASA, the National Institutes of Health (systems to screen children for vision disorders), the US Air Force (lenses correcting higher order aberrations in the pursuit of “super vision”), and the US Army (night vision systems).

Mr. Van Heugten is also president of the non-profit Institute for Adaptive Optics in Human Vision, where he is constantly seeking new ways to improve the quality of life of people in the way that they see.