Pitney Bowes Inc. announced that Robert Cordery of Monroe, Conn., was recently granted his 144th U.S. patent, making him the most prolific inventor in Pitney Bowes history. The milestone patent is a postage meter that conveniently processes mail for multiple different postal carriers by using separate corresponding secure postage vaults in the meter. In addition, Cordery's 145th patent was issued today, and the latest invention provides a way to secure data being sent from a meter's accounting device to its printing device, to prevent counterfeit or altered data from being processed and printed, without having to encrypt the data.

"Bob has reached a company milestone in his 28-year R&D career with Pitney Bowes," said chairman, president and CEO Murray Martin. "Bob, like so many other great inventors at Pitney Bowes, has succeeded in fulfilling real market needs. His achievements have contributed greatly to the innovative spirit at the heart of Pitney Bowes's success."

Cordery played a key role in the evolution of cryptographically secured postage evidencing at Pitney Bowes and currently participates in ISO standards for 2D barcode verification. He is a United States Patent and Trademark Office patent agent, was a judge at this year's Connecticut Invention Convention, and since 2009, has served as a mentor to high school students in the Bridgeport area through the WiMentor program. Cordery is also a member of a variety of organizations, including the American Physical Society, the IEEE Computer Society and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. He has authored 18 science and engineering related articles and is the recipient of 12 awards honoring him for his work in the field, including one of the Pitney Bowes Inventors of the Year in 1995, 2000 and 2007. Cordery holds a Ph.D. in theoretical statistical physics from the University of Toronto, and has held positions in the physics departments at Rutgers and Northeastern Universities where he researched scaling properties of materials near phase transitions and field theories. His current research interests include modeling the state of a customer based on communications, secure protocols and geo-demographic modeling.

"Our customers depend on Pitney Bowes's portfolio of digital and physical communications channels to -- first and foremost -- provide security," said Cordery. "Continuous innovation is key to meeting the fast-paced requirements of a competitive marketplace, and I am pleased to help our customers excel in this area," said Cordery.