This spring, Narendra Dahotre, Distinguished Research Professor of materials science and engineering, was named a National Academy of Inventors fellow for his lifetime research of laser material interactions and the application of high power lasers in advanced materials processing and manufacturing. The fellowship is a high professional distinction given to academic inventors for creating or facilitating inventions that have made a tangible impact on quality of life, economic development and the welfare of society. Dahotre's recent creation of a new laser machine and bone-cutting technology, which is pending for a U.S. patent, could change the way surgeons operate.