Illinois Tech biomedical engineering professor Philip R. Troyk elected as Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors

(Press-News.org) CHICAGO—December 11, 2025—Philip R. Troyk, director of the Pritzker Institute of Biomedical Science and Engineering at Illinois Institute of Technology (Illinois Tech), has been elected a 2025 fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). The NAI Fellowship is the highest professional distinction awarded solely to inventors, and Troyk is one of 169 inventors from the United States selected for this distinguished honor this year.

“As an Illinois Tech faculty member, I am pleased to receive this honor and hope that our students will be inspired to pursue their creative and inventive ideas,” says Troyk, who is also the Robert A. Pritzker Endowed Chair in Engineering and a professor of biomedical engineering.

Troyk’s research focus is neuroprosthetic devices, which are implantable electronic modules that interface with the biological nervous system for the purpose of compensating for deficit or disease, by mimicking normal sensory or motor function. 

He has led a research team comprised of eight academic and corporate institutions for the design, development, and clinical testing of an implanted cortical visual prosthesis for providing artificial vision for people with profound blindness. The groundbreaking invention bypasses the retina and optic nerve, connecting directly to the brain’s visual cortex. 

The project is now in a clinical trial funded by the National Institutes of Health, which allowed the team to reach a critical milestone in 2022: After three decades of development at Illinois Tech, they successfully implanted the first intracortical visual prosthesis device. A second participant was implanted in October 2024. Clinical testing has found that the prosthesis provides study participants with an improved ability to navigate and perform basic, visually guided tasks. 

He holds 43 combined U.S. and foreign patents, including five patents for advanced wireless magnetic powering and communication with implantable electronic devices. They form the basis for the powering of, and communication with, the subminiature electronic modules implanted in the human brain for the intracortical visual prosthesis. 

He has been a highly awarded researcher, with honors including the Innovative Research Award from the Chicago Council on Science and Technology in 2023, the Bartimaeus Award from World Congress for Visual Prostheses in 2021, and the Outstanding Research Award from the Illinois Tech chapter of Sigma Xi in 2017. He was recently named a Researcher to Know by the Illinois Science and Technology Coalition. 

Troyk is also founder, president, and chief executive officer of Sigenics, a unique Chicago-area medical technology resource that develops silicon devices to aid in biomedical research. The company has grown to become a designer and supplier of customized electronic design for multiple markets, including aerospace, industrial, and the military, with an emphasis on sole-source application-specific integrated circuits. 

The 2025 Class of Fellows will be honored and presented their medals by a senior official of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) at the NAI 15th Annual Conference on June 4, 2026, taking place in Los Angeles, California.

“NAI fellows are a driving force within the innovation ecosystem, and their contributions across scientific disciplines are shaping the future of our world,” says Paul R. Sanberg, president of NAI. “We are thrilled to welcome this year’s class of fellows to the academy. They are truly an impressive cohort, and we look forward to honoring them at our 15th annual conference in Los Angeles next year.” 

Troyk is also a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering and the Institute of Physics. 

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