Norman Wagner, engineering professor at the University of Delaware, was inducted into the National Academy of Inventors in April. Fellows are elected for having “demonstrated a highly prolific spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on quality of life, economic development, and welfare of society.” Wagner was recognized for his development of “liquid armor,” a fluid that stiffens when pressure is applied, for use in space suits.
Wagner is the Unidel Robert Pigford Chaired Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Delaware and is a joint professor in the Departments of Physics and Astronomy, in addition to director of the Center for Neutron Science. His undergraduate degree is from Carnegie Mellon University in 1984 and his doctorate in chemical engineering from Princeton in 1989. Wagner was a post-doctorate NATO/NSF fellow in Germany and a director’s post-doctoral fellow at Los Alamos National Laboratory. He joined the faculty at the University of Delaware in 1991and served as chair of the Department of Chemical Engineering from 2007 to 2012.
