By Kim Case
Gordon Thomas, Ph.D. a resident of Princeton, recently received an Edison Patent Award from the Research & Development Council of New Jersey. Dr. Thomas is an NJIT professor of physics in Newark.
New Jersey Institute of Technology’s “No Clog Shunt Using a Compact Fluid Drag Path” (U.S. Patent 8,088,091) invented by Professors Reginald Farrow and Gordon Thomas and former graduate student Sheng Liu, received a patent award in the medical device category. This implantable device enables wireless monitoring of both the extremely slow flow of the cerebrospinal fluid as well as tiny changes in the pressure in a shunt that drains fluid out of the brain. Existing shunts give no information about the patients’ health, but are used by patients suffering from severe excess pressure in the brain due to hydrocephalus or brain injury.
A short tribute film was created for each award winner-NJIT’s film can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=hyrM0mamHIE&feature=endscreen
For more information on the Edison Patent Awards or the R&D Council of NJ, visit www.rdnj.org.

