The 2012 NAI Charter Fellows Selection Committee is comprised of 14 Members from the National Academies, recipients of National Medals, a National Inventors Hall of Fame inductee, a NAI Charter Fellow, and senior officials from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM), the United Inventors Association and University Research Leadership.

Nasser Arshadi is vice provost for research and professor of finance at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. He received his Ph.D. in financial economics at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He has published extensively in top economics and finance journals on capital markets and the microeconomics of corporations with an emphasis on assessing and managing risk. He has published two books on financial intermediation (Prentice Hall) and insider trading (Kluwar Academic Publishing). He served as an economist and policy analyst at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System in Washington, DC, and as a consultant to the American Bankers Association (Washington, DC), Treasury Management Association (Washington, DC), Securities Industry Automation Corporation (NYC), Deutsche Financial Services (St. Louis), and Commerce Bancshares (St. Louis). He serves on several boards.

Norm Augustine is retired Chairman and CEO of the Board of the Lockheed Martin Corporation. Prior to joining Martin Marietta, he served as Assistant Secretary of the Army (R&D) from 1973-75 and Undersecretary from 1975-77. He was a Professor at Princeton, his alma mater, from 1997-99.

Mr. Augustine has been presented the National Medal of Technology by the President of the United States and received the Joint Chiefs of Staff Distinguished Public Service Award. He has five times received the Department of Defense's highest civilian decoration, the Distinguished Service Medal. He is co-author of The Defense Revolution and Shakespeare In Charge and author of Augustine's Laws and Augustine's Travels. He served on the Boards of Black & Decker (now Stanley Black & Decker), Procter & Gamble and ConocoPhillips. Mr. Augustine was Chairman and Principal Officer of the American Red Cross for nine years, Chairman of the National Academy of Engineering, President and Chairman of the Association of the United States Army, Chairman of the Aerospace Industries Association, President of the Boy Scouts of America and Chairman of the Defense Science Board. He is a Trustee Emeritus of Johns Hopkins, a former member of the Board of Trustees of Princeton and MIT, and is a Regent of the University System of Maryland. He has been elected to membership in the American Philosophical Society, the National Academy of Science, the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, the Explorers Club, Tau Beta Pi, Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Xi. He holds 29 honorary degrees and was selected by Who's Who in America and the Library of Congress as one of "Fifty Great Americans" on the occasion of Who's Who's fiftieth anniversary.

Anne H. Chasser is an Author and Intellectual Property Strategist and Expert. From 1999-2004 Anne served as the Commissioner for Trademarks at the United States Patent and Trademark. Appointed by the President Clinton and confirmed by the United States Senate. She served in both the Clinton and Bush administrations where she oversaw the trademark operations at the USPTO. During her term at the USPTO, the Trademark Operations implemented full electronic processing of trademark applications and examination and implemented the Madrid Protocol. She was recognized by Managing Intellectual Property Magazine as one of the Fifty Most Influential People in Global Intellectual Property.

Formerly the Associate Vice President for Intellectual Property for the University of Cincinnati, Anne served as Chair of the Ohio Technology Transfer Officers Council, a Board Member of the Cincinnati Intellectual Property Law Association Board of Directors, Board member of the National Inventors Hall of Fame and member of the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM). She serves on the Board of Trustees for the Institute for American Universities in Aix-en-Provence since 2008. Along with Jennifer Wolfe, Anne authored in 2010, Brand Rewired: Connecting Intellectual Property Protections, Branding and Creativity. In September 2012, Domain Names Rewired will be published also by John Wiley &Co.

Since July, 2011, Edward G. Derrick, Ph.D., has been Chief Program Director of the AAAS Center of Science, Policy, and Society Programs. The programs in the Center connect the science and engineering community with policy makers and the interested public on an array of topics. These include the interplay of science with religion, law and human rights; they connect scientists and policy makers through programs in science and government, including the S&T Policy Fellowship program; and they address improvement in the conduct of science through activities promoting responsible conduct of science and through a peer review service. As Chief Program Director, Ed oversees the programs, which combined have a staff of over 35 and an annual budget over $18 million, and serves as a member of senior management at AAAS.

Ed first joined AAAS in 1998 as a member of the AAAS Research Competitiveness Program (RCP). RCP provides review and guidance to the science and innovation community. He became director of the program in January 2004, with responsibility for the development of new business and oversight of all aspects of the design and execution of projects. Ed has participated directly in over 50 RCP projects, having led committees to assist state- and institutional-planning for research, to review research centers and institutions and to advise state and international funds on major investments. He holds the Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin, with a dissertation in theoretical particle physics, and the B.S. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with an undergraduate thesis in biophysics. Prior to joining AAAS, Ed spent two years as an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow in Germany. He has worked for Ontario Hydro in the Nuclear Studies and Safety Division and consulted for the National Research Council. Besides contract and grant reports at AAAS, his publications include refereed scientific journals, conference proceedings, software documentation and newspaper articles.

Elizabeth Dougherty is the Director of Inventor Education, Outreach, and Recognition in the Office of Innovation Development at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). In this capacity, she develops implements and supervises programs that support the independent inventor community, small businesses, entrepreneurs and the intellectual property interests of colleges and universities; she coordinate the agency's ombudsman program for small businesses and entrepreneurs as mandated by the American Invents Act (AIA); she supervises the development of outreach programs to women, minority and other underserved communities; she also builds and maintains relationships with state and local governments to promote local programs that support invention and innovation in the United States. Ms. Dougherty has spearheaded a number of special projects with such organizations and oversees a portfolio of ongoing and future initiatives designed to assist independent inventors, entrepreneurs, and minorities.

Prior to her current assignment and most recently at the USPTO, Ms. Dougherty served as an Acting Deputy Director in the Office of Patent Legal Administration at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). In this capacity she was responsible for the oversight and direction of a team of senior legal advisors and legal staff who serve as the legal policy advisors for the U.S. Patent Corps. Ms. Dougherty and her team devised and implement training for the Patent Corps and the public, draft and disseminate legal policy memorandum and guidance documents for use by the Patent Corps and the public, and assisted in the development and handling of special application issues and USPTO patent initiatives.

Margaret A. (Peggy) Focarino is Commissioner for Patents for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), she was appointed to this position in January 2012. She previously served as Deputy Commissioner for Patents, providing administrative oversight to nine Patent Technology Centers and coordinating the activities of patent application examination and reissues of patents. In her new role as Commissioner, Ms. Focarino will manage and lead the Patent organization as the chief operating officer. She is responsible for the management and direction of all aspects of this organization which affect the administration of patent operations which includes patent operations, examination policy, resources and planning; and administration.

Ms. Focarino began her career at the USPTO in 1977 as a Patent Examiner. She became a Supervisory Patent Examiner in 1989 and was promoted to the Senior Executive Service in 1997. She received the Department of Commerce Bronze Medal Award in 1993 for her work as a Supervisory Patent Examiner and the Department of Commerce Silver Medal for leadership in 2010 for leading a joint union and management task force that developed and implemented the first significant changes to the patent examiner work credit system in more than 30 years.

Dr. Thomas J. Fogarty is an internationally recognized cardiovascular surgeon, inventor, entrepreneur, and vintner. He has been involved with a wide spectrum of innovations in business and technology. Dr. Fogarty has served as founder/co-founder, and Chairman/Board Member of over 33 various business and research companies, based on medical devices designed and developed by Fogarty Engineering, Inc. During the past 40 years, he has acquired 135 surgical patents, including the "industry standard" Fogarty balloon catheter and the widely used Aneurx Stent Graft that replaces open surgery aortic aneurysm. Dr. Fogarty is the recipient of countless awards and honors; most significantly, he is the recipient of the Jacobson Innovation Award of the American College of Surgeons, the 2000 Lemelson-MIT prize for Invention and Innovation and was inducted into the Inventors Hall of Fame and the National Academy of Engineering.

Recently, Dr. Fogarty and his colleagues founded the Fogarty Institute for Innovation at El Camino Hospital. The purpose of the Institute is to create an environment where innovation in medicine is encouraged, supported, and nurtured.

Dr. Sir Harold "Harry" W. Kroto, received the 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his co-discovery of buckminsterfullerene, a form of pure carbon better known as "buckyballs." The extraordinary molecule consists of 60 carbon atoms arranged as a spheroid, in a pattern exactly matching the stitching on soccer balls. The configuration reminded Kroto of the geodesic domes designed by the late inventor/architect Buckminster Fuller, hence the name "buckminsterfullerines."

A few of Kroto's additional achievements include being awarded Fellow of the Royal Society (1990), Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry; President of the Royal Society of Chemistry (2002-2004), Mexican Academy of Science; Member Academia Europaea (1993); Hon. Foreign Member Korean Academy of Science and Technology (KAST) (1997); Hon. Fellow of the Royal Microscopical Society (1998); Hon. Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1998); Hon Fellow of the RSC (2000), Foreign Member Finnish Academy of Sciences, Academy of Sciences (Torino 2005), Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences (US 2007). In 2001, Kroto won the Royal Society's prestigious Michael Faraday Award. The award is given annually to a scientist who has done the most to further public communication of science, engineering or technology in the United Kingdom. Kroto is currently a Francis Eppes Professor at Florida State University.