Texas A&M University former student and current Florida International University (FIU) associate professor Dr. Anuradha Godavarty ’03 has been named a National Academy of Inventors senior member for her research and innovations in optical imaging technologies.
National Academy of Inventors senior members are current faculty, scientists and administrators who have had success in patents, licensing and commercialization and have produced technologies that have impacted the welfare of society. These individuals also possess the spirit of innovation in their communities and highlight educating and mentoring the next generation of inventors.
Godavarty’s research focuses on developing hand-held and smartphone-based near-infrared optical imaging technologies with applications in wound care management and radiation-induced dermatitis in breast cancer subjects.
Funded by various federal and state agencies, including the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense, the American Cancer Society, the Canary Foundation, the W.H. Coulter Foundation and the Florida Department of Health, Godavarty oversees the development and enhancement of low-cost, hand-held optical imaging technologies and computational analysis.
Although she graduated as a chemical engineer, Godavarty said she has always enjoyed the health care translation of innovations made in research since earning her doctoral degree at Texas A&M. “It definitely feels good to be have an enthusiastic research team and also be supported by various funding agencies that allow us to move our innovations forward into real-world applications in the health care domain,” she said.
Godavarty believes that being named to this program is a true recognition of years of her continuous and steady effort on the path of innovation of technologies. She urges current engineering students to always work hard toward their goals and remember that they need patience for results.
“Big dreams need small, steady but forward-looking steps in life,” she said. “Undergraduates should be involved in research beyond classroom education early on to understand the real essence of engineering in the real world. Graduate students or any graduating engineer must find passion in their work. If you love your work, it becomes more of a hobby than a chore that needs to be completed.”
Both Godavarty and her husband work at FIU. Together they have a teenage daughter in high school who aspires to be an engineer. Apart from her research, Godavarty is a trained classical dancer in an Indian dance form called Bharathnatyam. After years of training, she made her solo debut on stage in January 2020, right before the pandemic.
Although she hasn’t had the chance to return to Aggieland since graduating, she aims to make a trip back eventually. “I do wish to visit sometime to walk down the memory lane of my wonderful years spent at Texas A&M,” she said.
Godavarty graduated from Texas A&M with her doctoral degree in chemical engineering in 2003. After graduation, she worked at the University of Vermont as a postdoctoral fellow until 2004, when she joined FIU as an assistant professor in biomedical engineering and, once tenured, was promoted to associate professor.