Dr. Naofal Al-Dhahir, the Erik Jonsson Distinguished Professor of electrical engineering at The University of Texas at Dallas, was named a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI), the highest professional distinction given to academic inventors. The NAI has 1,288 fellows worldwide representing more than 250 universities and governmental and nonprofit research institutes. Al-Dhahir worked at the General Electric Company Research and Development Center, and at AT&T’s Shannon Labs for nine years before joining UT Dallas in 2003. Al-Dhahir was elected an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) fellow in 2008. “That’s what I try to do every day, whether through teaching, research or service.”Al-Dhahir joins three current UT Dallas faculty members who also are NAI fellows: