Florida Inventors Hall of Fame 2020 Inductees

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Mr. BILIRAKIS. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor the eight inventors who have been recognized as the 2020 Inductees of the Florida Inventors Hall of Fame. To be named as an Inductee, these inventors were nominated by their peers nationwide and have undergone the scrutiny of the Florida Inventors Hall of Fame Selection Committee. As a result, their innovations have been identified as significantly impacting the quality of life, economic development, and welfare of their communities, the residents of Florida, and the United States.

The Florida Inventors Hall of Fame was founded in 2013 at the University of South Florida. It was recognized by the Florida Senate with Senate Resolution 1756, adopted on April 30, 2014. Its mission is to encourage individuals of all backgrounds to strive toward the betterment of Florida and society through continuous, groundbreaking innovation by celebrating the incredible scientific work that has been or is being accomplished in Florida and by its citizens.

Nomination to the Florida Inventors Hall of Fame is open to all Florida inventors (living or dead) who are or have been residents of Florida. The nominee must be a named inventor on a patent issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The impact of the inventor and his or her invention should be significant to society, and the invention should have been commercialized, utilized, or led to important innovations.

The 2020 Inductees of the Florida Inventors Hall of Fame are:

Christopher Batich: University of Florida Professor of materials science and engineering and biomedical engineering, who developed groundbreaking treatments in patient care, most notably the anti- bacterial surface treatment material, Bioguard, which is used as the standard of care for advanced wound dressing and bacterial barriers in hospitals and healthcare facilities.

Nicholas Bodor: Founder and CEO of Bodor Laboratories, University of Florida Professor Emeritus and prolific inventor whose innovations in drug discovery established the field of retrometabolic drug design and led him to develop a portfolio of novel drugs to treat numerous inflammatory disease processes.

Harvey Firestone (1868-1938): Founder of Firestone Tire and Rubber Company whose pioneering innovations revolutionized the commercial rubber industry, and who advanced scientific research in Florida and co-founded the Edison Botanic Research Corporation to develop a domestic source of natural rubber.

Leslie Kramer: Vice President of Engineering and Manufacturing at TaiLor Made Prosthetics; scientist, engineer and entrepreneur whose long career in industry led to groundbreaking innovations in composite materials, military defense applications and most notably an advanced carbon-fiber composite prosthetic foot that has improved the lives of amputees.

Israel Morejon: Founder and President of Integrated Engineering Technology whose inventions have provided innovative solutions across multiple industries, most notably state-of-the-art LED lighting technologies, Nano projectors, wireless modem technology, optical tomography for cancer detection systems, and cutting-edge HVAC Load Reduction technology.

Joshua Rokach: Florida Institute of Technology Professor who was the first to synthesize major inflammatory triggers responsible for asthma, allergies, and inflammatory bowel disease, which revolutionized medical research in allergy and inflammation and led him to develop a number of groundbreaking drug discoveries, including Singulair and Flexeril.

Jean-Francois Rossignol: Co-Founder and Chief Medical & Scientific Officer of Romark Laboratories and University of South Florida Affiliate Professor of Medicine whose breakthroughs in treatments for parasitic diseases led to his discovery of thiazolides, a new class of antiparasitic agents, later discovered as a new class of broad-spectrum antiviral drugs also used in the fight against novel infectious diseases.

Christine Schmidt: University of Florida Professor and Chair of the J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering whose pioneering research in biomaterials science led to her development of decellularization techniques used in Avance Nerve Graft, a biochemically processed nerve graft that benefits patients with peripheral nerve damage.

Innovation and invention are the building blocks of our nation. I applaud these highly accomplished individuals and the organizations that support them in their quest to change the world in ways that truly benefit humanity. It is because of the perseverance of these inventors that future generations are encouraged to reach beyond their limits and push the boundaries of innovation.

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