Dartmouth is again ranked by the National Academy of Inventors among the top 100 universities worldwide granted patents in the United States. This marks the third consecutive year Dartmouth appears in the international ranking and the 10th year it has been on the list.
Dartmouth received 40 patents in 2025, and its inclusion on the NAI list reflects the sustained innovation efforts of faculty, students, and researchers across disciplines. Over the past year, Dartmouth inventors secured dozens of U.S. utility patents spanning fields from advanced medical technologies to engineering solutions and digital platforms, underscoring the university’s commitment to research excellence and practical impact.
“Once again Dartmouth shows its strength in research, intellectual property generation, and patents, especially considering that we are not a large university,” says Vice Provost for Entrepreneurship and Technology Transfer Eric Fossum. “Our innovative community can be proud of our ranking on a worldwide basis.”
“This achievement celebrates the creativity of our research community and strengthens our mission to move promising ideas from the lab into society where they can make a difference,” adds Kim Rosenfield, director of the Technology Transfer Office.
The Technology Transfer Office partners with inventors throughout the innovation lifecycle—supporting patent strategy, identifying commercialization pathways, and facilitating industry collaborations and licensing opportunities that help ensure inventions reach their full potential.
Among the patents issued last year were:
- Medicines and methods to prevent or treat herpesvirus infections in newborn babies, developed by Professor of Engineering Margie Ackerman and Professor of Microbiology and Immunology David Leib and a team that included Iara Backes, MED ’19, ’24, Guarini ’22; Chaya Patel, MED ’21, Guarini ’21; and Anthony Moody at Duke University’s Department of Pediatrics;
- A system that uses “attention-based” techniques to automatically sort and analyze detailed images from high-resolution microscopes, developed by Professor of Biomedical Data Science Saeed Hassanpour and research scientist Naofumi Tomita, Guarini ’17, at the Geisel School of Medicine;
- Systems and methods for multiplexed amplifiers for brain computer interfaces, developed by a team that included Associate Professor of Engineering Hui Fang. He was named a senior member of the NAI last month;
- Software and methods to train users to spot electronic phishing messages and create a database to help filter future scam messages, developed by Samuel Cavallaro, William Cowen, Mitchel Davis, Catherine Porter, and Samuel Fielder at Information, Technology, and Consulting.
The NAI rankings, based on data from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, illuminate the critical role that academic research plays in advancing technologies that benefit society and fuel economic growth.
“Utility patents are essential to translating promising discoveries into real-world solutions,” says NAI President Paul Sanberg. “By recognizing and celebrating institutions that value strong patent portfolios, the NAI encourages innovators and universities to push technologies toward broader societal and economic impact.”