ORNL's Picture an Innovator series highlights nine prolific female innovators with granted patents or registered copyrights that are licensed to industry. Women inventors date back to the late 1700s: In 1793 Hannah Slater was the first woman to be awarded a U.S. patent for her new method of producing cotton sewing thread. Even though this was an exceptional accomplishment for her era, even in modern times women still comprise a small minority of patent inventors.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office reported in 2019 that only 12.8% of U.S. inventors receiving patents were women. Similarly, U.S. female entrepreneurs struggle to gain support in innovation ecosystems with just 2.8% of venture capital investment in U.S. female-founded startups in 2019 (2019 TechCrunch Report).
These ORNL women innovators provide our community with shining examples of how talented researchers spur innovation and drive ORNL’s technological impact. The ORNL Technology Transfer Office is excited to learn about your commercial interests and to partner to bring ORNL solutions to the marketplace.
This series applauds Nancy Dudney, Olga Ovchinnikova, Marie Urban, Amy Elliott, Beth Armstrong, Huimin Luo, Christi Johnson, Amy Rose and Regina Ferrell.
