 "Photo: Courtney Dudley")
Adam Heller and Grant Willson, two UT chemical engineering professors, will receive the 2007 National Medal of Technology and Innovation award at the White House Sept. 29.
The award, presented annually by President Bush, recognizes outstanding achievements in technology. This is the first time since 1993 that a UT professor has received the award and the first time ever that professors in the same department have received the award.
Heller has worked as an engineering professor at UT for 20 years and in 1964 began research on the Freestyle Navigator, a device that monitors glucose levels in diabetics.
The device was approved by the Food and Drug Administration and the European Union and is used worldwide.
"Having lost all my friends and part of my family in the Holocaust, I feel blessed for surviving and being allowed to contribute to, however slightly, lessening pain and suffering in the world," Heller said. "I was also blessed with formidable co-workers."
Willson is credited with inventing semi-conducter devices, which he began researching in 1978 at IBM headquarters in California. The devices are credited with improving computer speed and quality.
"As computers continue to improve, faster and more efficient products are needed," said Willson, who has been a UT professor for 15 years.
He said he decided to perform research that would benefit not just the University or the nation but the entire world.
"Recruiting outstanding students has been my key to success," Willson said. "I was very lucky to find wonderful and bright students to work with,"
Roger Bonnecaze, a fellow UT chemical engineering professor, said Heller and Willson have been "stellar researchers for decades."
Heller said he is grateful to live in a country where scientific innovation is prized and encouraged and there is acceptance of a diverse body of people and ideas.
"This acceptance of difference underlies innovation," he said. "It makes the people of the U.S. the most innovative in the world."
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