The National Academy of Inventors announced Tuesday that two Iowa State University professors have been selected for its 2024 class of fellows, the highest professional distinction awarded solely to inventors.

Matt Darr, the John Deere endowed chair in ag innovation and professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering, leads Iowa State’s Digital Ag Innovation team and the university’s BioCentury Research Farm, a facility for research and development around raw materials that are plentiful in Iowa like corn, soybeans and algaes.

The Digital Ag Innovation team, which is moving into the new Alliant Energy Agriculture Innovation Lab at the ISU Research Park,  focuses on developing technology, data insights and automation for agriculture in collaboration with industry partners, a news release said.

According to the release, Darr is an author or co-author on 88 patents and licensed technologies, ranging from smart sensors and controls to biomass logistics to machinery electronics, found in approximately 60 different products globally. “Every one of those products adds value and makes agriculture more productive, efficient and sustainable,” Darr said in a prepared statement.

Eric Cochran, the Mary Jane Skogen Hagenson and Randy L. Hagenson professor in chemical and biological engineering, has conducted hundreds of experiments at the research farm to find the right bio-based alternative to a petroleum-based asphalt additive that extends the life of pavements.

Cochran has contributed 53 patents at Iowa State and co-founded the startup Soylei Innovations in 2020 along with other Iowa State colleagues. “We want to create a product that satisfies renewable and recyclable goals that also provides a real value proposition, such as better performance or saving money, that stands alone in the market,” he said in a prepared statement.