inventions
December 4, 2021
License to innovate
The Washington Research Foundation was founded 40 years ago to capture the value of inventions coming out of the UW.
March 7, 2019
‘One foot at a time’
Billy Price, ’02, made his mark as an inventor of innovative footwear.
June 1, 2012
A patent success
Catching up with Robert Charlson, ’64, professor emeritus of Atmospheric Sciences and Chemistry, and co-inventor of the first UW-held patent that brought royalties to the UW.
March 1, 2012
Slick job
Two UW alums who helped devise a better way to ameliorate oil spills were part of a team that won a $1 million prize for its ingenuity.
Taming the saxophone
The Broctave Key—the first U.S. patented invention from one of the UW Arts divisions—is now on its way to being manufactured.
June 1, 2010
Innovative idealism
Student teams from across the University of Washington and other state schools heralded their inventions of clean, green technologies at the second annual UW Environmental Innovation Challenge.
June 1, 2009
The first bioengineer
Wayne Quinton not only designed a laundry list of life-saving medical devices, but became the first practitioner of an entirely new field: bioengineering.
June 1, 2007
Hollywood honoree
W. Jay McGarrigle earned a Technical Achievement Award from the same people who hand out the Oscars.
September 1, 2006
50 years for the heart
Fifty years ago, the UW perfected its own heart-lung machine and did the first open-heart bypass surgery in the West. Now advances are coming so quickly that they could put future cardiac surgeons out of business.
September 1, 1999
Waldo Semon dies at 100
He wasn't a government leader, or someone who cured diseases, but Waldo L. Semon, '20, '24, had a profound effect on our lives that carries on to this very day.
June 1, 1997
Victor Mills, ’26, is the man who invented Pampers
Through his ingenuity, Victor Mills, '26, touched the lives—or at least the behinds—of just about every American born in the past generation.
September 1, 1996
A stroke of genius saved countless lives with dialysis
"I literally woke up in the middle of the night with the idea of how we could save these people," Belding Scribner recalls.
September 1, 1993
Patent pays off
The Washington Research Foundation has given the University $1 million to establish endowed fellowships for promising graduate students.
June 1, 1993
Paint that ‘feels’
A UW researcher has invented a new paint for aircraft that promises better pressure readings at a lower cost.