Chemistry professor Richard Yost's triple quadrupole mass spectrometer has been used to test Olympic athletes for drugs and to save newborns' lives.
Prof. Richard Yost Elected National Academy of Inventors Fellow
Richard A. Yost, University of Florida professor of chemistry, was named among the National Academy of Inventors’ 2021 class of fellows, the organization’s highest professional distinction.
Yost, PhD, is known for inventing the triple quadrupole mass spectrometer, which has a wide array of uses including environmental research, Olympic drug testing and disease screening for newborns. He was among 164 academic inventors from 116 different institutions elected fellows by the National Academy of Inventors (NAI) this year.
The head of analytical chemistry division at UF, Yost was inducted into the Florida Inventors Hall of Fame in 2019, and in 2021 received the prestigious Pittsburgh Analytical Chemistry Award.
The NAI Fellows Program, the academy said, recognizes those who have shown “a spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on the quality of life, economic development, and the welfare of society.” The 2021 class of fellows will be inducted at the NAI Eleventh Annual Meeting, to be held June 15, 2022, in Phoenix, Arizona.
The 2021 class of fellows also included José C. Príncipe and Subrata Roy of UF’s Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering.
