Central Region

Les Kramer, Ph.D.

Vice President of Engineering and Manufacturing
TaiLor Made Prosthetics

17 U.S. Patents

Les Kramer is the Vice President of Engineering and Manufacturing at TaiLor Made Prosthetics, LLC in Orlando, and a board member of the University of Central Florida’s College of Sciences and Nanoscience Center who created a remarkably advanced carbon fiber composite prosthetic foot that has improved the lives of many amputees. Accepting a job at Lockheed Martin, Kramer moved to central Florida in 1985, where he started changing the technology of composite materials by improving properties and producing carbon nanotube structures to encourage morphing and multifunctional material behaviors. Later, he produced light weight carbon nanotube/foam core composites with outstanding structural performance that were held together by advanced adhesives. Kramer’s research in adhesives technology transferred into Steam Turbine blade repair and later technology licensed for upgrading Florida phosphate pump repairs. Additionally, maintenance of his composite materials, which contain embedded sensor suites led to many of Kramer’s inventions becoming key technologies for improvised explosive device (IED) detection as well as remote sensing for the military. In 2010, he retired from Lockheed Martin and co-founded TaiLor Made Prosthetics to focus on providing amputees with improved foot prosthesis performance and comfort. His prosthetic foot design returns energy sequentially to the wearer’s heel and toe, has 100% replacement of components, and is totally customizable. Hundreds of people including Boston Bombing victims and Wounded Warrior® amputees, have confirmed its unique performance that allows walking backwards as well as smooth action on stairs and ramps. Kramer is a named inventor on 17 U.S. patents.

A MENTION ABOUT INVENTION
3 Questions for the Inventor

Q   Of your patents/inventions, which one is your favorite and why?

Actually, I have two favorite inventions for two different reasons.

There is no doubt in my mind that the comfort and control benefits received by lower limb amputees when using the TaiLor Made Prosthetic Foot™ have been a life-changing experience for these people. To date, we have approximately 2,000 amputees using my invention including two Boston Marathon bombing victims. Because of its unique modular design, the foot can be reconfigured to meet the specific needs of the owner from normal walking and running during daily life to athletic pursuits from golf to playing soccer, rock climbing, and competitive skateboarding. This prosthetic foot has an energy return system that helps the amputee obtain a near perfect walking gait while not having to drag their foot vertically when walking up stairs or losing control when negotiating ramps. When I meet the amputees that wear my prosthetic foot, it is not unusual that I get thanks and hugs for increasing their freedom of mobility.

My second favorite invention is ABEST™ (Adhesive Bonding Erosion Shield Technology) and was a process I developed to simultaneously cure an adhesive and a seal surrounding the adhesive in order to provide an environmentally impervious adhesive joint. The initial application for this technology was to avoid welding or brazing of steam turbine erosion shields that were difficult processes as field repairs and could potentially damage already installed turbine blades. The low-cost, speed of installation, and low risk of damage were all significant commercial advantages to electric power companies in order to shorten turbine outages. This entire process was developed in my garage in Longwood, Florida and was tested at a power plant in Huntley, New Zealand. This invention taught me many important lessons about becoming an entrepreneur. But the most important lesson was not to give up on a good idea because initial trials fail. You see, after two field trials in New Zealand, my idea for steam turbine erosion Shield applications did not work after an extended period of time. Fortunately, I met the President of the Florida Phosphate Council during a chance encounter at the University of Florida and learned that phosphate rock impact damage was a big problem for the pumps that provide the feedstock to Florida fertilizer factories. After several discussions with a major phosphate pump manufacturer, I found that my adhesive bonding erosion shield technology would work perfectly in this device. For several years, I ran a small business repairing phosphate mining pump components with the ABEST™ patented technology. As a side benefit of this work, I was able to take a wonderful extended vacation in the beautiful country of New Zealand and develop a long-term friendship with my customer.

Q   What inspired you to become an inventor/innovator?

I grew up on the south side of Chicago. During World War II, my Dad had two years of engineering courses at Armor Institute of Technology (i.e., now IIT) before the program was terminated at war’s end. He returned to the family paint store for the rest of his career. Fortunately for me, he had learned basic engineering skills in college and hands-on skills (i.e., lab skills) at the paint store that he taught me. He was a wonderfully skilled HO gauge train model maker and taught me how to use hand tools at an early age. By age 8, I had won my first award from the local hobby shop for a “stick and tissue” built model airplane. When I wanted to enter a 1 tube regenerative radio receiver in my school science fair, he taught me how to solder and fabricate sheet metal. When I wanted to build a “Giant Repulsion Coil” that would levitate an aluminum ring due to induced eddy currents, he located and bought me the double cotton covered No. 12 copper wire and transformer laminations. Unfortunately, we destroyed my mother’s dining room table pad in the act of winding the coil, but the device worked beautifully and was exhibited at the Chicago Science Fair. My Dad gave me the skillset and mental tools required to develop an inventor’s mindset.

While I could do some chemical experimenting in my Chicago apartment such as using lemon juice as “Invisible Ink” and exploring high speed photography in our apartment “Darkroom”, I really needed a collaborator with “lab space” (i.e., a basement with a workbench and tools). Fortunately, I had a friend, Sy, who lived in a house next to my apartment building and had similar interests. Together, we built some Heathkit electronics and other devices. One day, we decided to build a robot from an old garbage can mounted to downspout legs. The legs were mounted to a base containing the drive wheels. The wheels were belt driven directly by a large AC electric motor mounted in the garbage can. The initial “prototype” had no provision for speed control (it was on or off) or steering. Just as we plugged the robot’s motor into the electrical socket, Sy’s mother came down the basement stairs with a plate of cookies. The robot wheels “peeled” tire tracks in the linoleum floor and aimed directly toward Sy’s mother – the cookies went flying!! Needless to say, no one was hurt, but my robot building ceased immediately. A year later, Sy and I constructed a device to make time lapsed movies of Morning Glories that were growing on his garage. For one month during the summer, we hauled a war souvenir Nazi electric movie camera, a large Lionel train transformer, and a crude but effective timing device to activate the camera onto the garage roof. The resulting color movies of morning glories opening and closing each day were unbelievably detailed considering the home-made nature of the equipment. So, invention inspiration also requires the ability to conduct experiments. The presence of a willing colleague and a large working space is a good adjunct as well!!

Q   Do you have a personal process for inventing?

Obviously, you need to identify an intriguing problem that needs to be solved by an invention as a first step!!  When I first recognize the need for the invention, I may have some initial potential solutions “pop into my mind”, but I never initially act on these ideas at first. Rather, I “sleep on it” and find that my mind subconsciously works to resolve my important vexing technical problems. Sometimes, a particularly difficult problem requires many nights of thought, but often in the morning, I wake up with a clearer understanding of the problem solution. During my patent productive years at Lockheed Martin, I used to say that I thought up most of my patentable ideas while shaving!! 

A few of my patents are “Gedanken Experiments” (Thought Experiments) that have proven to work in my mind but are unproven by experiment. One of my foot patents is an example of this approach where the patent describes a Bluetooth enabled microprocessor prosthetic foot that has not been reduced to practice, but I know must work because of the underlying maturity of the components and of the software.  Evidently USPTO agreed!!

No matter how a patentable idea is conceived, there needs to be supporting testing, standards compliance, manufacturing considerations, quality control methods, and a host of other requirements to prove that the invention is worthy of commercialization investment and efforts.

Israel Morejon

President
Integrated Engineering Technology

28 U.S. Patents

Israel Morejon is president of Integrated Engineering Technology in Tampa and a University of South Florida graduate. A prolific inventor with 29 years of combined experience in the military, medical, consumer, industrial, and Research and Development (R&D) fields, Morejon is most known for inventing state-of-the-art LED lighting technologies and cutting edge HVAC Load Reduction technology. He began his career in the defense industry designing missile guidance and control systems. Then he founded an engineering design and consulting firm, where he developed application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC) for digital video encoding and compression, universal lighting dimming controllers, hearing aids, kidney dialysis systems, robots, and the core waveguide technology used in speed guns. Morejon later joined a major health care company and designed multi‐platform acute care patient monitoring products. Subsequently, he served as Director of R&D and later Chief Technology Director for a multinational design and manufacturing company, overseeing global product development. Through the years, he created solutions for a diverse group of products including automotive, wireless, storage, computing devices, laptop docking stations, camera modules, PDAs, and smartphones, pioneered the last mile wireless technology and optical tomography cancer systems, and developed an LED Rear Projection TV, LED edge emitting LCD Back Light, and Nano projectors. Afterwards, Morejon founded LEDnovation, Inc., an innovative technology and product company in the emerging solid state lighting market that launched multiple products. He also served as the Chief Technology Officer of enVerid, a company revolutionizing the HVAC field. Morejon is an NAI Fellow and has 28 U.S. patents.

A MENTION ABOUT INVENTION
3 Questions for the Inventor

Q   Of your patents/inventions, which one is your favorite and why?

There is not one favorite design, some were very profitable, others serve humanity and others were game changers in their field. For example, docking stations for laptops were very profitable. Optical Tomography for breast cancer detection, medical monitors, dialysis and hearing aids were good for humanity. And Solid-State lighting lamps and Air Cleaner solutions define their field. All were unique and favorite in a very special way.

Q   What inspired you to become an inventor/innovator?

To answer to this question, I have to go all the way back to my childhood. I was eight years old, and my first design was a maneuverable long-board like apparatus. We used it to race down the hill. I took two large pieces of wood and configured them in a T shape structure, with a pivot at their junction made from bolts, nuts and washers. I then took roller skates split them apart and used them as the wheels. The brakes were made from square cutouts of old tires and affixed by nails to the front axle where the rider’s feet would rest. To break the rider would simple bring the back of their feet down. The steering was done with a rope tied to each end of the front axle, and you pull to the desired side, using your feet for feedback greatly made the design very maneuverable. This experience was transformative, it is an incredible joy to see designs take shape. I was hooked, I knew without any doubt that creating was my calling then, and I still feel that way now, in fact I am passionate about it…that’s why I chose engineering.

Q   Do you have a personal process that you follow when inventing?

I have a great deal of experience and large organized library of articles, books and previous designs. A well-equipped home lab allows for quick test of ideas.

Joshua Rokach, Ph.D.

Professor
Director of the Claude Pepper Institute of Aging and Therapeutic Research
Florida Institute of Technology

63 U.S. Patents

Joshua Rokach is a professor and director of the Claude Pepper Institute of Aging and Therapeutic Research at Florida Institute of Technology. His research in bioorganic chemistry received worldwide recognition for the first syntheses of major mediators responsible for asthma, allergies, and inflammatory bowel disease. Rokach has received a number of awards for his groundbreaking research and his accomplishments are many including the creation of Blocarden® for treatment of angina and hypertension, which led to the development of Timoptic® that successfully treats glaucoma. Equally monumental, Rokach’s research on the nervous system developed the highly effective back pain medication Flexeril® that functions as a muscle relaxant without sedative properties. Perhaps the most significant outcome of Rokach’s work was identifying a potent leukotriene receptor antagonists and synthesis inhibitors for the treatment of asthma. These efforts resulted in the creation of Singulair®, which when approved for clinical use 20 years ago was among the top 10 pharmaceuticals under patent protection, generating over $5 million annually. Singulair® has greatly improved the lives of millions of asthmatic patients and allergy sufferers world-wide. Most recently, at Florida Tech, Rokach’s research focused on anti-inflammatory applications has been licensed to Fairhaven Pharmaceuticals and is moving into human clinical trials. In 1988, Rokach received the Xerox Lecturer award for the most innovative research in the industry and still today his discoveries continue to impact major health issues affecting both young and elderly populations in Florida and around the world. He holds 63 U.S. patents and is an NAI Fellow.

Jean-François Rossignol, Ph.D., MD

Chief Scientific Officer
Romark Laboratories
Professor
University of South Florida, Morsani College of Medicine

50 U.S. Patents

Jean-François Rossignol is co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer at Romark Laboratories in Tampa as well as a professor of Medicine and Infectious Disease at the University of South Florida (USF). Born in France, Rossignol is a scientist, medical chemist, and physician who developed groundbreaking treatments for parasitic diseases and, in 1974, discovered a new class of broad spectrum antiviral drugs. After completing his medical training, he worked for the Division of Parasitic Diseases at the World Health Organization. Subsequently, he pursued a career in academia and pharmaceuticals, discovering and developing drugs such as halofantrine for the treatment of resistant falciparum malaria as well as albendazole and nitazoxanide to treat intestinal protozoan and helminthic infections. Later, while working at Stanford University, he uncovered nitazoxanide’s antiviral activity against the hepatitis C virus (HCV). Additionally, nitazoxanide, was the first treatment for cryptosporidial diarrhea and viral gastroenteritis, caused by norovirus and rotavirus, found safe enough to be given to infants. This led to the development of a new class of antiviral drugs known as thiazolides that stimulate immune cells, activating gene pathways that block viral transformation. Romark Labs have initiated the synthesis of second generation thiazolides and established new derivatives that are now entering clinical development in the treatment of rotavirus and norovirus, influenza and influenza like illnesses as well as chronic HBV and HCV. Rossignol holds 50 U.S. patents and is a fellow of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. In 2016, he received an honorary MD from the University of South Florida.

A Mention about Invention
3 Questions for the Inventor

Q   Of your patents/inventions, which one is your favorite and why?

According to the Merck Index, which is listing more than 20,000 chemicals, drugs and biologicals used mostly in medicine, a drug inventor could be the chemist who synthesized the molecule, the pharmacologist who first discovered the activity of the new compound in vitro and in vivo and finally the physician who first gave the drug to human subjects showing its efficacy. While I was one of the three in the three drugs today on the market, the discovery of nitazoxanide, listed me in the three categories, the chemist who synthesized the drug, the microbiologist who discover the activity of the drug against bacteria and parasites and the clinician who first gave the drug to human subjects. Later I also discovered that the drug was antiviral with a broad range of antiviral activity and its mechanism of action in targeting cell energy metabolism by modulating mitochondrial activity of the cells. The results of this research were the subject of 30 United States Patents, 27 were awarded a three are still pending.

Q   What inspired you to become an inventor/innovator?

Upon the completion of my undergraduate degree in chemistry at La Sorbonne of the University of Paris, I joined the Radium Institute to undertake my graduate education in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry of the Institute toward my doctorate degree in chemistry. Created in 1909 for Marie Curie, the Radium Institute was the Division of Radiobiology and Cancer Research of the Pasteur Institute in Paris. The Institute was located in the heart of the Latin Quarter surrounded by the majority of the most prestigious scientific institutions in France where significant discoveries were made over the last two centuries such as the Ecole Normale Supérieure where Pasteur worked for many years discovering among other things the rabies vaccine, the College de France, the Ecole Polytechnique and many more. At the Radium Institute in 1965 the shadow of Marie Curie was still with us along with those of her husband, Pierre, her daughter Irene and her husband, Frederic Joliot, who all won four Nobel Prizes between 1903 and 1935 for their research on radioactivity. There was also the Curie Foundation, today the Curie Institute, which was a part of the Radium Institute and a leading cancer hospital in France. The proximity of the hospital and my contacts with the physicians working there were directly responsible for my decision to study medicine and to become a physician. The Department of Medicinal Chemistry at the Radium Institute was the continuation of the eponym department at the Pasteur Institute where before WWII, the first antimicrobial sulfonamides were co-discovered with the Germans by Ernest Fourneau and his team of chemists and the pharmacologist Daniel Bovet who later received the Nobel Prize in 1957. Finally, in 1965 Jacques Monod, André Lwoff and François Jacob won the Nobel Prize for Medicine for their discoveries concerning genetic control of enzyme and virus synthesis. Surrounded by so many discoverers the new generation had to discover and some of us did. For me as a medicinal chemist and a physician it would be in the treatment of infectious diseases mainly in tropical countries and cancer.

Q   Do you have a personal process that you follow when inventing? 

Drug discovery is a very risky, challenging, yet intellectually rewarding business. The Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts recently showed that it takes the testing of an average of 10,000 chemical compounds to identify 250 (2.5%) with a good activity in preclinical studies. Only 5 (2%) of these 250 molecules will be tested in clinical trials but only one will eventually be approved and commercialized, which means 1 compound out of 10,000 chemical products originally screened. The screening of a large number of chemical compounds was requiring a large organization such as those in Germany before WWII working under Paul Ehrlich and later under Gehrard Domagk both at Elberfeld, which would ultimately lead to the discovery of Salvarsan® and Prontosil® respectively both considered the birth of chemotherapy. The Radium Institute and myself in particular had to find a way to discover an active molecule without synthesizing 10,000 compounds, which would have taken me more time than my entire life! I had to follow a different way to discover active molecules. We were only ten chemists in my laboratory, and we were two medicinal chemists. I had to look around on the St Genevieve Hill to see what my illustrious predecessors have done, and I came across the work of the famous chemist Marcellin Berthelot who worked next to the Institute at the College de France in Paris (1827-1907). Berthelot concentrated his research in studying the importance of composition and connectivity in chemistry assembling molecules from simpler type to reach relatively simple final compositions. It was the application of an old concept to a new application in medicinal chemistry, which lead to the discovery of nitazoxanide, which only required the synthesis of 27 molecules. Making nitazoxanide was the simple combination of aspirin chloride and a single heterocyclic ring and the resulting compound was a new molecule modulating mithocondrial activity in human cells regulating energy metabolism in the entire body. The new drug was targeting the cells infected by a pathogen, mainly a parasite or a virus, or more generally cancer cells, all of them requiring additional energy in order to survive. Therefore, reducing the energy in the cells on a physiologically accepted manner was a new way to block the replication of many pathogens and consequently to treat viral infections such as the new emerging coronavirus SARS-Cov-2 causing Covid-19.

Michael Bass, Ph.D.

Professor Emeritus
College of Optics and Photonics/CREOL/FPCE
University of Central Florida

35 U.S. Patents

Michael Bass is Professor Emeritus at CREOL, the College of Optics and Photonics at the University of Central Florida (UCF) where he served UCF as Vice President for Research from 1988 to 1992. Bass’ significant inventions in the area of optics and spectroscopy have optimized the use of lasers and optical systems, aiding in the treatment of major diseases and improving the design of the world’s fiber optic communication system. He has been active in optics research since his thesis studies, developing technologies that deliver laser light to treat internal bleeding and tumors as well as rare earth ion spectroscopy that tracks nanoparticles, aiding in the treatment of disease. Through collaboration with colleagues at CREOL he also invented the “beam control prism,” a method to extract light from high power lasers while optimizing cooling, which was licensed and commercialized by Florida based, Rini Technologies; and he designed methods for amplifying space-multiplexed optical systems that promise to be a major part of future communications networks. Prior to coming to Florida, Bass served as director of the Center for Laser Studies and department chair at the University of Southern California (USC). Earlier in his career he was a Senior Research Scientist at the Raytheon Company Research Division. Bass is a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI), The Optical Society (OSA), Laser Institute of America (LIA), and American Association of the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and Life Fellow of the Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). In 2014 he received the R. W. Wood Prize of the Optical Society of America. Bass holds 34 U.S. patents.

Joanna S. Fowler, Ph.D.

Senior Chemist Emeritus
Former Director, PET Program
Brookhaven National Laboratory
Graduate, University of South Florida

8 U.S. Patents

Joanna Fowler a native Floridian, University of South Florida (USF) alumna, and 2008 National Medal of Science laureate whose transformative research enabled the use of molecular imaging to more accurately identify and treat illnesses ranging from drug addiction to cancer. In 1976, she and her colleagues synthesized 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG), the most commonly used positron emission tomography (PET) radiotracer today. A world leader in PET chemistry, Fowler has been a major contributor to brain research using PET throughout her career. Fowler is a senior chemist emeritus and former director of the PET program at Brookhaven National Laboratory as well as an adjunct professor at SUNY at Stony Brook and the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York and a Special Volunteer at the National Institutes of Health. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and recipient of the NAS Award in Chemical Sciences for her innovative research in the chemical sciences that contributed to the better understanding of the natural sciences and benefited humanity. Fowler is also a member of the American Chemical Society, Society of Nuclear Medicine, American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, and Academy of Molecular Imaging. In 2011, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Science from USF. Fowler holds 8 U.S. patents.

Hedy Lamarr

Inventor and Actress

1914-2000

1 U.S. Patent

Hedy Lamarr, born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler, was a Hollywood film star, and more importantly, a natural inventor. In 1981, she retired to Miami Beach, Florida and later spent her final years in central Florida. At the age of 28, Lamarr designed and patented a radio controlled, frequency hopping system called the Secret Communication System that was intended to keep U.S. Naval torpedoes from being detected by German naval fleets. Lamarr donated the patent to the U.S. Naval war effort, and although the Navy didn’t employ it during WWII, it proved to be invaluable during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Over the course of the next six decades, Lamarr’s groundbreaking invention went on to serve as the foundation for a multitude of communication technologies, including fax machines, top-secret military and diplomatic communications, GPS, internet, Wi-Fi, satellite communication systems, and wireless communication, spawning significant advances in cyber security. Despite having never been formally educated in math or science, Lamarr paved the way for advancements in communication technologies that will continue to be used worldwide for years to come. In 1997, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) was the first to publicly acknowledge Lamarr for her invention by presenting her with the EFF Pioneer Award. She later went on to be the first woman to receive the BULBIE Gnass Spirit of Achievement Bronze Award, and in 2014 she was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

Alan F. List, M.D.

Chief Medical Officer
Precision BioSciences
(North Carolina)

17 U.S. Patents

Alan List, president and CEO of the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute is internationally recognized for his dedication to understanding cancer biology and developing novel therapeutic strategies for treating hematologic malignancies such as myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and acute myelocytic leukemia (AML). His pioneering work led to the development of lenalidomide (Revlimid®), which received fast-track approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for treatment of patient with MDS and multiple myeloma. Revlimid® has transformed the natural history of MDS from a condition requiring aggressive treatment to one that can be managed in the outpatient setting with oral agents. Prior to coming to Moffitt in 2003, List was a professor of Medicine at the University of Arizona, Tucson, where he served as the director of the Leukemia and Blood and Marrow Transplant Program and the Division of Transitional/Clinical Research Program. He is a member of the Myelodysplastic Syndrome Foundation Board of Directors and the President-elect (2017-18) for the Society of Hematologic Oncology. List is also an active member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology; American Society of Hematology; American Association for Cancer Research; International Society for Experimental Hematology; J.P. McCarthy Foundation Medical Advisory Committee; and the Southwestern Oncology Group. He lectures nationally and internationally and has received several awards for his seminal contributions in the treatment of cancer. List is a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI) and holds 17 U.S. patents.

Luther George Simjian

Founder
Reflectone Inc.

1905-1997

200+ U.S. Patents

Luther G. Simjian was a prolific inventor and pioneer in the concept of Automated Teller Machines (ATMs). He is also recognized for his many accomplishments including the development of the Optical Range Estimation Trainer used during WWII, which became the standard for simulation defense training, as well as his numerous inventions that have advanced technology throughout Florida theme parks. Simjian was born to Armenian parents in Turkey and in 1915, during the infamous Armenian Genocide, he was separated from his family. He arrived in the United States in 1921 and was later admitted into the Yale School of Medicine. Simjian accepted a work-study position in the medical school’s photography lab, quickly discovering that medicine was not his passion, he decided to pursue photography. During his tenure, he became the first director of the medical school’s photography department and soon invented a way to project microscopic images and photograph organisms underwater. Simjian moved to New York In 1934, where he invented the colorized X-ray machine and the self-posing camera. In 1939, he founded Reflectone Inc. to develop and manufacture his inventions. During World War II, Reflectone sold more than 2,000 Optical Range Estimation Trainers to the Department of Defense to aid in war efforts. In 1979, Simjian moved Reflectone from Connecticut to Tampa, Florida and it was purchased by CAE USA Inc. in 2001. The company remains in business today, making full-flight simulators for military aircraft, as well as providing training services. Over the years, Simjian never stopped inventing, designing a supersonic exploring device for the ultrasound procedures used in hospitals, a method for tenderizing meat, and a remotely controlled postage meter. In March of 2000, he received his last patent post mortem for creating a process to improve the resonance of wood used for musical instruments. Simjian passed away at the age of 92, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He is a named inventor on more than 200 U.S. patents.

Sara Blakely

Founder, SPANX®
Sara Blakely Foundation
Graduate, Florida State University

5 U.S. patents

Sara Blakely is a Tampa Bay native and Florida State University alumna who invented the renowned undergarment SPANX and built a billion dollar enterprise that has influenced fashion worldwide. With the extremely hot and humid weather in Florida, wearing traditional pantyhose everyday was not pleasant. In an attempt to continue to benefit from control top smoothness, Blakely set out to invent pantyhose without seamed toes that did not roll up on her thighs. After self-patenting her idea for this innovative shapewear, she spent her life’s savings of five thousand dollars to follow her dream of becoming an entrepreneur. After much persistence she found a garment manufacturer to mass produce her product and launched sales from her apartment in August 2000. By 2014, SPANX annual revenues reached $250 million. Blakely is committed to sharing her success by helping women pursue education and training in entrepreneurship. In 2006, she founded the SPANX by Sara Blakely Foundation, which has donated millions to charities around the world. Blakely is the first self-made, female billionaire to sign The Giving Pledge, donating at least half of her wealth to charity. Blakely holds 5 U.S. patents.