KU scientist known for discoveries in precision medicine named to National Academy of Inventors

Steven Soper is a University of Kansas Foundation Distinguished Professor with joint appointments in the departments of Chemistry and Mechanical Engineering. He has been named to the 2025 Class of National Academy of Inventors Fellows.

Thu, 12/11/2025

Erinn Barcomb-Peterson

LAWRENCE — For the third year in a row, the National Academy of Inventors has added a University of Kansas faculty member among its fellows.

Steven Soper was among the 185 academic inventors named to the 2025 Class of NAI Fellows on Dec. 11. Election as an academy fellow is the highest professional distinction awarded solely to academic inventors.

Soper is a Foundation Distinguished Professor with joint appointments in the departments of Chemistry and Mechanical Engineering. He is the principal investigator for the National Institutes of Health-funded Center of BioModular Multi-Scale Systems for Precision Medicine, which includes as partners the KU Medical Center, Louisiana State University, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and Wake Forest School of Medicine.

The major focus of Soper’s research group is generating new tools for discovery and medical diagnostics through the analysis of biological macromolecules. This includes DNAs, RNAs and proteins. Soper and his team’s innovative tool developments include lab-on-a-chip technologies for testing medical conditions like cancer, stroke and infectious diseases.

“Professor Soper is an exceptional innovator whose discoveries and inventions are transforming how we safeguard human health,” said Shelley Hooks, vice chancellor for research. “The University of Kansas is proud of this latest recognition of his life-improving work.”

Soper earned bachelor’s degrees in psychology and chemistry from the University of Nebraska at Omaha. He then earned a doctorate in bioanalytical chemistry from KU in 1989 and was a postdoctoral fellow at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Soper joined KU in 2016 following stints at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and at Louisiana State University. Since arriving at KU, Soper has earned several honors, including the Irvin Youngberg Research Award in Applied Sciences in 2022 and multiple Sutton Family Research Impact Awards from the Department of Chemistry.

Soper also received the prestigious Ralph N. Adams Award in Bioanalytical Chemistry in 2022, which is an international award recognizing significant contributions to the field of bioanalytical chemistry.

Soper is an inventor on more than 20 patents and has been the founder of three startup companies over his career.

“It is wonderful to see Dr. Soper recognized for his discoveries and his contributions as an inventor,” said Clifford Michaels, executive director of the KU Center for Technology Commercialization, which works with KU researchers like Soper to protect and commercialize their innovations.

The center received 85 invention disclosures in fiscal year 2025 — the highest number in a decade — and received nearly 350 total invention disclosures in the past five years. Moreover, KU has 56 active startup companies based upon discoveries or innovations made by KU researchers.

Since its inception in 2012, the NAI Fellows program has grown to include more than 2,253 distinguished researchers and innovators, who hold more than 86,000 U.S. patents and 20,000 licensed technologies. Their innovations have generated an estimated $3.8 trillion in revenue and 1.4 million jobs.

KU has been a member of the National Academy of Inventors since 2013 and is among the academy’s Top 100 U.S. universities for issued patents. Eight faculty members have been inducted as fellows during their time at KU:

2025 — Steven Soper
2024 — Ron Barrett-Gonzalez, professor of aerospace engineering
2023 — Brian McClendon, research professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science.
2018 — Mark Shiflett, Foundation Distinguished Professor of Chemical & Petroleum Engineering.
2017 — Cory Berkland, Solon E. Summerfield Distinguished Professor in KU’s departments of Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Chemical & Petroleum Engineering.
2016 — Raghunath Chaudhari, Deane E. Ackers Distinguished Professor of Chemical & Petroleum Engineering.
2015 — Val Stella, distinguished professor emeritus in the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, and Bala Subramaniam, the Dan F. Servey Distinguished Professor in the Department of Chemical & Petroleum Engineering.