ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Three inventors at Xerox Corporation  with a knack for turning ideas into practical customer solutions were recognized this month for passing patent milestones that rank them among the nation's most inventive minds.
 
Jin Wu, a project leader in the Consumables Development and Manufacturing Group (CD&MG) has reached 172 patents.  And two principal scientists from Xerox Research Center in Webster also reached milestones --  Lalit Mestha, 102 patents and Raja Bala, 75 patents.
 
"We celebrate the ingenuity of these three scientists as they join an elite group of inventors," said Sophie Vandebroek, Xerox's Chief Technology Officer and president of the Xerox Innovation Group.  "They share the gift of translating 'Aha' moments and creative ideas into real solutions for our customers."
 
Jin Wu
Wu leads a team developing materials for Xerox digital printing systems.  Wu's 150th patent was issued for discovering an additive that can suppress ghosting which is a common print defect for high speed long life photoconductors.  He has received a total of 172 US patents to date, and has another 185 patent applications filed.  
 
Wu credits his success to paying attention to fellow scientists and continuing to build new ideas off of existing scientific advancement.
 
"My ideas come from a combination of my deep understanding of the issue and new insights of the current state of technology," Wu said.  "My advice to new inventors is to pay attention and build off of your colleagues' ideas in both industry and academia."
 
Wu holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Fudan University, China; a master's degree in biochemistry from Ohio University and a doctorate degree in polymer chemistry from Polytechnic Institute of New York University.
 
Lalit Mestha
Mestha currently is applying his imaging and control expertise to create new technologies for printing, healthcare and transportation solutions including a healthcare application that could automatically detect human vital signs without contact. Mestha, who currently holds 102 patents, said intuition plays a key role in his inventions.

"I seem to have a lot of intuition that tells me whether the ideas I have will work before we theoretically prove or experimentally demonstrate that they do," he said. "I trust my instincts, and they rarely steer me wrong."

Mestha's 100th patent was for a method that helps digital production printers produce consistent color each and every print at extremely high speeds.  
 
He received a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the University of Mysore, India and a doctorate degree in electrical engineering from the University of Bath, England.
 
This year he was named a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and in 2010 was awarded Xerox's Anne Mulcahy Inventor Award. In 2006 he was the recipient of the IEEE's Control System Technology Award.
 
Raja Bala
Bala's 75th patent describes a method to ensure that colors are printed consistently on Xerox printers.  He currently is working on research aimed at using computer vision and image analysis techniques that enable designers to insert personalized content into images.
 
"One thing that is really gratifying about my job is being able to work closely with some of the brightest people in the world," he said. "It's also satisfying to see our ideas implemented into Xerox products that help our customer get to the real business at hand."
 
Bala holds a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington, and holds both a master's and a doctorate degree in electrical engineering from Purdue University. He is an adjunct professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology.
 
Xerox will celebrate the accomplishments of these scientists and several hundred others who have received patents at the annual Rochester patent dinner this fall.