2001: Peter S. Guilfoyle is the founder and president of OptiComp Corporation (OCC), Zephyr Cove. an optoelectronic devices for fiber optic networks company. Mr. Guilfoyle holds six patents and has three in application. He is a three-time winner of the prestigious SBIR Tibbetts Model of Excellence Award.
2000 Dr. John Whitney, President and CEO of Itronics Inc., is a certified environmental manager in the state of Nevada. He founded the company in 1986 to help the cities of Reno and Sparks solve a problem of too much photowaste silver getting into the Truckee River.
1999: Thomas R. Potter is founder of Reno A&E, a company that manufacturers traffic loop signal detection systems. He holds a number of patents in the area of vehicle detection.
1990: Donald W. Schmanski, Sr. of Carson City created flexible highway signs, pathfinder floor tiles for the visually impaired, and insulation materials for space vehicle rocket nozzles.
1998: Paul C. Fisher is founder and president of Fisher Space Pen Co. in Boulder. The company sold more than eight million dollars worth of pens in 1997.
1989: Steven P. Shearing, M.D. of Las Vegas is an innovator in opthalmology who has developed and commercialized the first compressible posterior chamber intraocular lens which revolutionized cataract surgery.
1997: Stanley Klainer is a physical analytical chemist who lives in Henderson. He holds 17 U.S. patents that focus on the use of optical waveguide chemical and biochemical sensors for industrial, environmental, and military monitoring of hazardous and toxic species in the air and in water.
1986: George S Sanders of Las Vegas developed products in agricultural aviation engineering, and artificial intelligence for sensing and analyzing acoustic signals.
1996: Gary W Nelson is President of Delta Industries in Reno, manufacturers of cabinet hardware. He holds twelve national and international patents solving demanding design and manufacturing issues and in the area of drawer slide systems.
1985: John A. Kleppe of Scientific Engineering Instruments in Sparks is a fourth generation Nevadan and professor of electrical engineering at UNR who has inventions and developments in the fields of digital electronics, sophisticated acoustic sensors, weather radar systems, 3 axis acoustic Doppler radar and satellite communications.
1994. Jerome H. Lemelson of Incline Village is one of the most prolific American inventors next to Edison and Land. Mr. Lemelson has more than 500 patents dealing with industrial robots, bar coding scanning systems, video cassettes, recorders, fax machines, and magnetic tape drives.
1984: Robert Mendenhall of Las Vegas invented the asphalt pavement recycling machine. He has aggressively urged conservation of natural resources through recycling.
1993: Charles G. Hutter, III is founder of Click Bond in Carson City, a company that creates a variety of adhesive bonded fasteners used in aircraft, space, and marine industries. Mr. Hutter has more than 40 patents.
1984: William P. Lear of Reno holds more than 150 patents in radio and electromechanical devices plus numerous aviation improvements including the well known Lear Jet.
1992: Mr. Carl Parise is founder of Thermax in Stead. Mr. Parise's product became the first U.L. approved steam cleaner that sparked the development of a multi billion dollar commercial cleaning industry and a rental industry that exceeds two hundred million dollars in annual sales.
1983: Donald E. Bently is founder of Bently Nevada Corporation in Minden. He developed the eddy current proximity transducers which are used in the monitoring and diagnostics of rotating machinery.
1991: John P. Chisholm founded the Sierra Nevada Corporation in Reno, a defense electronics firm. His work and inventions were in the fields of microwave aircraft landing systems, the U.S. Navy's hands-off automatic carrier landing systems, precision aircraft navigational systems, emergency locating systems, and collision avoidance systems.
1982: Austin G. Cooley of Reno holds more than 75 patents including the FAX machine and improved navigation instruments. He first experimented with photo transmission over telephone lines in the early 1930's.
1981: Alessandro O. Dandini of Reno holds 22 American and international patents and is noted for his invention of the three-way light bulb, unique building blocks, and the spherical collection of solar energy. The Dandini Research Park, home of the Desert Research Institute in Reno, is named after him.
