By Peter Murphy
Published December 5, 2019
Satish Nagarajaiah, who received his PhD in Civil Engineering from UB in 1990, was elected to the National Academy of Inventors (NAI) earlier this year.
Nagarajaiah is a former student of Professor Emeritus Andrei Reinhorn and SUNY Distinguished Professor Michael Constantinou during his time at UB. Nagarajaiah, Constantinou and Reinhorn are all credited with US Patent 8,857,110 B2, Negative Stiffness Device and Method.
Between 1998 and 2014, Nagarajaiah co-authored nine technical reports for UB’s MCEER with Constantinou and Reinhorn on three different grants. Through his research with MCEER, Nagarajaiah developed the 3-D BASIS class of computer programs for the response-history analysis of seismically isolated buildings. These programs featured developments that were later adopted by Computers and Structures, Inc. for the SAP2000 and ETABS programs. SAP2000 and ETABS are both widely used by structural engineers to analyze structures equipped with seismic protective systems.
NAI Fellowship is the highest professional honor for academic inventors. According to the organization’s website, the NAI Fellows program “Highlights academic inventors who have demonstrated a 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.”
Nagarajaiah has four patents to his credit, and each has made a significant contribution to the field of structural engineering. He a Professor of Civil and Mechanical Engineering at Rice University.