They were selected because they  “have 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,” according to the national organization.

Included in the NAI charter class of 98 are eight Nobel laureates, two Fellows of the Royal Society, 12 presidents of research universities and non-profit research institutes, 50 members of the National Academies (National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine), 11 inductees of the National Inventors Hall of Fame, three recipients of the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, four recipients of the National Medal of Science, and 29 AAAS Fellows, among other major awards and distinctions.

Together, the new Fellows hold more than 3,200 U.S. patents.

“UCF is honored to have members of its faculty honored as NAI Charter Fellows,” said Soileau, UCF’s vice president for research and commercialization. “Dr. Glebov is an inventor of a new type of glass that is revolutionizing how components for lasers are made and is the foundation of one of UCF’S most successful spinoff companies, OptiGrate. Dr. Wu is a true pioneer in the field of liquid crystal display technology, something that impacts our lives when we look at our watches, watch TV, or turn on our iPhones.”

Soileau also has played a role in developing technology that protects devices from laser damage. Soileau served as founding director of CREOL, UCF’s College of Optics and Photonics that is known throughout the world for its excellence. He laid much of the groundwork for the optics program at UCF. That program includes the nation’s first full-fledged college devoted to optics and two additional research centers – the Florida Photonics Center of Excellence and the Townes Laser Institute.

As vice president for research and commercialization, Soileau oversees UCF’s Technology Transfer Office, the university’s business-incubation efforts, and participation in company partnerships through the Florida High Tech Corridor. Associate vice president Tom O’Neal leads those three particular efforts.

“My role is that of the privilege of heading the division of UCF where great things happen,” Soileau said.

Wu said UCF’s environment makes all the difference for his success.

“This is truly an unmerited blessing to me,” Wu said. “And I want to thank UCF for giving me a stage to be able to perform this work.”

Soileau served as the first director of UCF’s Center for Research and Education in Optics and Lasers (CREOL) before being named a UCF vice president in 1998.

Lluis Torner, director of the institute, credited Soileau with supplying the necessary direction to establish a center capable of conducting cutting-edge research in optics and photonics at the highest international level. Torner said the center benefited from Soileau’s experience, specifically relating to technology transfer.

The center, which opened in 2002, gives scientists and industries around the world an opportunity to work together on research projects ranging from telecommunications and information technologies to biotechnology, sensing, quantum information, industrial photonics, nanophotonics and biophotonics.

The institute hosts six European Research Council awardees and an active Corporate Liaison Program inspired by CREOL’s Industrial Affiliates Program. ICFO has become a European center of reference for researchers and industries, and a national flagship.

Soileau has achieved similar benchmarks at UCF, which has been ranked in the top 10 nationwide for the strength of its patents four times in the past four years. In 2010, UCF celebrated a decade of research under Soileau’s tenure, which has resulted in a cumulative $1.05 billion in research funding for the university.

The total raised in grants was $128.9 million, including $73 million in federal funding. That’s a 21 percent increase more than the previous year.

The College of Engineering and Computer Science received the most with $17.2 million, followed by the Institute for Simulation and Training with $16.7 million and the College of Sciences with $14.4 million.

Some notable federal funding included: five awards from the Defense şŁ˝ÇÖ±˛Ą Research Instrumentation Program (DURIP) and two National Science Foundation Early Faculty CAREER awards. The university received $44.5 million in funding from industry and another $11.3 million from the state. Thirty-five researchers were inducted into the university’s millionaires club, meaning they received at least $1 million in funding throughout the year.

“We are pleased with the effort put forth by our faculty who continue to compete for funding with the best in the country, despite increasing demands forced by state budget cuts,” said M.J. Soileau, vice president for research and commercialization.

The state has cut $144 million from UCF’s budget during the past five years, including $52 million this year, resulting in increased course loads and class sizes for many professors.

“For faculty to continue to write proposals and win awards is a testament to their dedication and commitment to their work,” Soileau said. “Much of the research is done after hours, on weekends and in between teaching assignments.”

Despite the challenges, faculty members and their students have produced results. Among the many successes this past year:

A recent Ph.D. graduate, Kevin Stevenson discovered UCF’s first planet.

Engineering Assistant Professor Shaojie Zhang used a complex computer program to analyze RNA motifs – the subunits that make up RNA (ribonucleic acid). The ability to do this analysis quickly may unlock the key to developing treatments for a host of diseases including certain kinds of cancer.

UCF Associate Professor J. Manuel Perez and Professor Saleh Naser and their research team developed a sensitive method to detect elusive pathogens associated with Crohn’s disease. The technique uses nanoparticles coated with DNA markers specific to the pathogens and may potentially give doctors a faster way to detect the disease.

Other research underway is already poised to produce more results that will directly benefit the community.

Tom O’Neal, the associate vice president for research & commercialization and executive director of the UCF Business Incubation Program and the Florida Economic Gardening Institute, led efforts to bring partners together for some impressive results. His efforts resulted in $1.3 million from the U.S. Economic Development Administration for a partnership between UCF, the Technological Research and Development Authority and the şŁ˝ÇÖ±˛Ą of Florida’s Florida Energy Systems Consortium to establish a network to promote the growth of the clean tech industry.

Cleantech refers to products or services that improve productivity while reducing costs, energy consumption, waste, and environmental pollution.

“UCF continues to find new ways to leverage funding from our partners into opportunities to better our community,” O’Neal said.

Cleantech is an area where UCF’s innovative spirit is alive and well. The U.S. Department of Energy awarded UCF $1 million to establish Megawatt Ventures Network, a program to encourage students to partner with entrepreneurs to launch and grow innovative green technology companies.

A UCF student whose company, Mesdi Systems, Inc., was a finalist in the Megawatt Venture Challenge competition, went on to win the ACC $100,000 regional prize and then competed at the national clean energy competition held at the White House over the summer.

Connecting research with industry is key and when done right benefits the community and the economy.

A 2012 study of the UCF Business Incubation Program shows that incubator client companies have created more than 3,120 jobs with a total economic impact of $363 million a year.

“Science and discovery, research and commercialization, help individuals, communities and societies,” Soileau said. “As UCF grows in these areas, the community, state and even the world will continue to see the benefits.”

DURIP awards totaling $54.7 million will help 190 researchers at 100 academic institutions purchase state-of-the-art research equipment, which will benefit science education, medical training and the preparation of soldiers before heading to war.

“Given the state cuts we have no state money for critical instrumentation for STEM research and education,” said M.J. Soileau vice president for research and commercialization at UCF. The university has seen a loss of $145 million in state funding over the past five years. “Our researchers are always tasked with competing for funding to pay for their research however this year we are especially pleased to have five faculty members who succeeded in competing with the best of the best.”

The money coming to UCF will help an array of projects including a program that blends the physical and virtual world by incorporating avatars and robots to help train medical personnel and soldiers before they leave for dangerous missions.

“Funding programs like the DURIP are critical to keeping our research competitive,” said Professor Gregory Welch, who joined UCF’s Institute for Simulation & Training and College of Engineering and Computer Science last August.  Welch also holds as an appointment at the şŁ˝ÇÖ±˛Ą of North Carolina Chapel Hill.

The funding will allow Welch and his team to greatly advance their work in the area of robotic physical-virtual-avatars. These creations are specially designed mannequins that have a projected real human face. A human operator in a remote location can see what the avatar sees in real time and can reproduce the human’s facial expressions and head movements.

Welch plans to create a “Sensorium system” to explore aspects of the physical-virtual avatars. For example, in addition to being used in military, medical and rehabilitation training, the system could be used for teaching students advanced techniques in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), Welch said.

Other UCF projects slated to receive funding:

A system for aligning and dispersing carbon nanotubes to allow for the creation of a new class of super-strong materials, led by Chengying Xu, assistant professor in the College of Engineering and Computer Science.

Completion of a unique facility in the UCF’s Townes Laser Institute that will allow a laser system to operate at record high power, led by Martin Richardson, Florida Photonics Center of Excellence trustee chair, professor in the College of Optics and Photonics and director of the Townes Laser Institute.

Enhancement of high performance computing and robot training equipment to expand research capabilities in robotics, artificial intelligence and evolvable hardware as well as to give students real-world experience, led by Mingjie Lin, assistant professor in the College of Engineering and Computer Science.

Purchase of video cameras, unmanned aerial vehicles for carrying the cameras and a cluster of computers for processing data obtained from the footage to improve research into the areas of motion tracking, behavior recognition and human and anomaly detection, led by Mubarak Shah, Ager Chair professor of Computer Science and director of the Computer Vision lab.

DURIP is a program under the Department of Defense. Representatives from the Army Research Office, Office of Naval Research, and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research evaluated more than 700 competitive proposals seeking a total of $226 million this year. Proposals were focused on advances in surface chemistry and physics, computing and networks, electronics and electro optics, neuroscience, fluid dynamics and propulsion, robotics and autonomous systems, and ocean, environmental, and biological science and engineering.

All awards are subject to the successful completion of negotiations between the defense department research offices and the academic institutions.

“SPIE and CREOL have enjoyed a long-standing and mutually beneficial relationship,” SPIE president Eustace Dereniak said during an awards banquet. “CREOL has supported the growth of our Defense, Security, and Sensing symposium for many years, and has been home to an SPIE student chapter for over 15 years.”

Dereniak also recognized M.J. Soileau, one of CREOL’s founding directors, who served as a SPIE president and received the society’s highest award, the Gold Medal. Today, Soileau is vice president for UCF’s Office of Research and Commercialization.

CREOL celebrated its anniversary with a two-day symposium that included talks by two Nobel laureates and several SPIE fellows. The event also drew more than 300 people from the industry including laser pioneer Charles Townes who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1964 for his work in the development of the laser. CREOL’s laser institute is named in Townes’ honor. For a video about CREOL’s future .

CREOL is a leader in laser and optics research. Several SPIE fellows including Leonid Glebov, James Harvey, Guifang Li, Winston Schoenfeld, Eric Van Stryland, Shin-Tson Wu, Larry Andrews and Cynthia Young work at UCF. James Pearson, a former SPIE  executive director also works with CREOL as a special consultant. They were all recognized Thursday.

CREOL was organized as a  center of excellence in optics and lasers in research and education, and to act as an intellectual, scientific and technical resource to the optics and photonics industry. Since then, CREOL has formed strong bonds with industry, has become a major force in Florida’s laser and photonics community, and is a prime source of highly educated talent in the optics and photonics field.

SPIE was founded in 1955 to advance light-based technologies. Serving more than 225,600 constituents from 150 countries, the society advances emerging technologies through interdisciplinary information exchange, continuing education, publications, patent precedent and career and professional growth. SPIE annually organizes and sponsors about 25 major technical forums, exhibitions and education programs in North America, Europe, Asia and the South Pacific.  SPIE provided more than $2.5 million in support of education and outreach programs in 2011.

Lluis Torner, director of ICFO, credited Soileau with supplying the help, advice and support needed to establish a center capable of conducting cutting edge research in optics and photonics at the highest international level.

“MJ’s generous advice over the years has had a tremendous impact on our success. As a new institute that from day one aimed at becoming world class, we have enormously benefited from MJ’s far-reaching vision and extended experience, specifically in matters related to technology transfer.”

The center, which opened in 2002, gives scientists and industries from around the world an opportunity to work together on research projects ranging from telecommunications and information technologies to biotechnology, sensing, quantum information, industrial photonics, nanophotonics and biophotonics.

ICFO is now a leading research institute, a European center of reference for researchers and industries, and a national flagship. ICFO hosts six European Research Council awardees and an active Corporate Liaison Program inspired by CREOL’s Industrial Affiliates Program.

Soileau has achieved similar benchmarks at UCF, which has been ranked in the top ten nationwide for the strength of its patents four times in the last four years.  In 2010 UCF  celebrated a decade of research under Soileau’s tenure which resulted in a cumulative $1.05 billion in research funding for the university.

The medal will be presented at the ICFO tenth anniversary celebration in Barcelona next spring.