Jerry M. Woodall BS, PhD

Jerry M. Woodall, a distinguished professor in the UC Davis Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, has been named a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors. He has been honored as a scientist who has “demonstrated a highly 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.”

Woodall and this year’s other new Fellows will be inducted by Margaret Focarino, U.S. Commissioner for Patents, during a ceremony taking place March 7, 2014, at the United States Patent and Trademark Office Headquarters in Alexandria, Va. Woodall is a National Medal of Technology Laureate and a pioneer in the research and development of compound semiconductor materials and devices. He has collected 85 issued U.S. patents, and his work is cited in more than 350 publications.

He is best known for having invented the high-efficiency red LEDs used in remote control and data-link applications such as TV sets and IR LAN, and the super-bright LEDs used in CD players and short link optical fiber communications. Fully half of the world’s annual sales of compound semiconductor components have been made possible by his research legacy. Other projects include the “pseudomorphic” high electron mobility transistor (HEMT), a state-of-the-art, high-speed device used in cell phones and satellites; and the weight-efficient solar cell.