Eric Markvicka, the Robert F. and Myrna L. Krohn Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering, has been selected to the 2025 Class of National Academy of Inventors (NAI) Senior Members.
The NAI website notes that its 715 Senior Members are “rising stars:” faculty, scientists and administrators from NAI member institutions. Other Senior Members from the College of Engineering include Carrick Detweiler, Carl Nelson, Wei Qiao and Liyan Qu.
These NAI members are recognized for “success in patents, licensing, and commercialization and have produced technologies that have brought or aspire to bring, real impact on the welfare of society,” including educating and mentoring the next generation of inventors.
Markvicka has been listed on nearly 20 U.S. patents, starting as an undergraduate student working on robotics through today, where his research melds computer and materials sciences to develop materials and processes that can improve human health and make new materials “engineered” for specific purposes.
His work includes the development of:
- Stretchable and wearable electronics that can monitor the human body, including sensing “noses” that sniff out excreted compounds to signal the onset of diseases and adhesive sensorized skins that can improve the underwater grasping of objects.
- Soft, elastically deformable composites of liquid metals to enable new generations of soft electronics, robotics and reconfigurable structures, such as filaments, films and structures through 3D printing.
- New ways to manufacture rubber composites that can better customize the material’s electrical, thermal and mechanical properties for specific applications.
- A wearable monitoring device containing multiple sensors, enabling faster and more accurate detection of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and other chronic conditions such as asthma, heart disease and inflammatory disorders.
With these innovations, Markvicka envisions future devices that will improve health monitoring and medical treatments both on Earth and in resource-limited environments such as long-duration space missions.
Markvicka said a desire to innovate has always been a defining part of his career – from Nebraska Engineering student through graduate school, and then joining UNL’s mechanical and materials engineering faculty.
“I think it’s incredibly important for the research we do at the university and within the college to have an impact on society,” Markvicka said. “We must file patents and actively champion these ideas – on our own or through students – to get our work out into the world to help make the world a better place.”
“Being selected a Senior Member is a testament to the students in my research lab who have made these inventions possible, as well as my mentors. Their willingness to involve students not only in their research but also be considered as inventors on patents resulting from that work has been invaluable.”
