Turkish professor elected to US National Academy of Engineering

NEW YORK

Turkish Professor Mehmet Toner has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), one of the United States’ most prestigious organizations and among the highest such professional distinctions accorded to an engineer, along with 105 other new U.S. and foreign members.A professor of health sciences at the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology and the Helen Andrus Benedict Professor of Surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital, Toner was elected to the organization for producing novel microelectromechanical and microfluidic point-of-care devices that improve the detection of cancer, prenatal genetic defects and infectious diseases.In addition, Toner was also honored with the fellowship of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI), the highest rank given to prestigious researchers with outstanding contributions on patents and inventions.Toner will be formally inducted during a ceremony at the organization’s annual meeting in Washington on Oct. 8.The academy membership honors those who have made outstanding contributions to “engineering research, practice, or education, including, where appropriate, significant contributions to the engineering literature,” and to “the pioneering of new and developing fields of technology, making major advancements in traditional fields of engineering, or developing/implementing innovative approaches to engineering education.”The NAI currently has 2,281 American and 249 foreign members, according to its website.Toner received a Bachelor of Science degree from the Mechanical Engineering Department of Istanbul Technical University in 1982, followed by a Master of Science degree in mechanical engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1985 and a PhD in medical engineering in 1989 from the same university.