Tips from Hall-of-Fame Inventor Dr. Rob Bryant
Have you ever gotten super excited about a new idea or topic? Maybe you wanted to keep learning everything you could about it. That kind of passionate curiosity inspires Dr. Robert Bryant. He’s an award-winning chemist at NASA’s Langley Research Center who was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2023.
Rob created a new material that helps make pacemakers more effective for people with heart problems. It’s helped more than 700,000 people worldwide! The special material is called LaRC-SI, which stands for “Langley Research Center-Soluble Imide.”
Rob shared his story and his passion for inventing with Dr. Steve Scotti, Brilliant Star’s STEAMS Education Advisor and a NASA Distinguished Research Associate.
Q: What’s one of your favorite memories from your childhood?
Being in Boy Scouts. I really enjoy the outdoor activities, especially the weekend camping trips. I also like building model airplanes (the balsa wood and paper frame-type) and building and launching model rockets.
Q: When you were a kid, what hobbies did you enjoy and what did you like learning about? How do those things help you in your work now?
The building of model airplanes and rockets, not because they were airplanes and rockets, but because you really had to follow the instructions, develop your own method of assembly and repair. There was a lot of detail involved with this, and a lot that could go wrong if these working models were not properly assembled or repaired.
Q: What’s a big challenge you faced as a kid, and how did you handle it?
The biggest challenge was my eyesight [due to a genetic condition]. There was no way to handle it. What many people do not realize is that glasses do not work effectively in my case. They help only slightly, which is why I don’t wear them most of the time. They only way I overcame this is through reading, which developed [my] comprehension. As a kid, I had no idea what was going on. Because of this, I suffered academically all the way through high school.
Q: What inspired you to become a chemist, and how did you get interested in inventing new materials?
I was always interested by how someone could decide what to use to build something, and how they went about doing it ... In high school chemistry class, I really enjoyed the lab where you combined two things, a reaction occurred, and a new product resulted. However, I didn’t know that was something you could get a job doing. So, when I went to college, I started out in Electrical Engineering.
Back then, over two out of three engineering students changed what they were studying. So, I switched to chemistry, and happened to take a course in polymer chemistry, which I really enjoyed. From that class, I took a test, and scored well enough, to get an undergraduate summer fellowship to work at the Polymer Institute at the University of Akron [in Ohio, U.S.]. It was here that I learned about engineering resins and composites. The rest is history.
Q: What got you interested in space and working for NASA?
Well, part of it is that I can actually say “I’m a rocket scientist!” The other most important part is that working at a government laboratory like NASA means that I get the chance to use my education and interest to explore materials that need to perform under extreme conditions, like aerospace.
Q: Please tell us about your invention, LaRC-SI, that led to your entry in the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
LaRC-SI belongs to a class of polymers [materials whose molecules are long chains of smaller molecules or of atoms] which are loosely defined as high performance engineering resins [polymers that can transform from liquid into solids].
What this means is that they can replace metals, as long as the temperature is not extremely hot. What happened with LaRC-SI is that it is easier to make products from this polymer. [That gives] the manufacturer a wider range of choices in how to make what they need.
LaRC-SI can be used as an insulator, an engineering resin, or a hot melt structural adhesive. It can be molded, used as a coating, and made into a thin film. Many manufacturers have a different material for each of these applications. LaRC-SI has the potential to serve multiple applications, leading to different products based on the same material.
Q: Please explain how LaRC-SI ended up being used in pacemakers, and how it helps people.
LaRC-SI is biologically inert, which means that the body doesn’t see it. Since it’s ... also an excellent insulator and can form a thin coating, an immediate medical device application is pacemaker leads. A pacemaker is a device that send an electrical signal to the heart that tells it to “beat,” which pumps blood. The leads of the pacemaker are the wires that carry the signals from the pacemaker to the heart. These leads are very complex wires, as they must function without hurting anything in the body, including the heart. And they must last, as it is very hard and dangerous to replace them if they fail.
The resulting innovation enabled by LaRC-SI is that pacemaker leads are made thinner. The lead wires and sheath went from about 3 mm in diameter with two leads, to 1 mm in diameter with eight leads. These extra leads are there to [lessen] the need for revision surgery. That means that the device should outlast the patient. Since the lead is thinner, it is easier for the surgeon to install, it is more flexible and less intrusive to the patent’s body, and it doesn’t cause any rejection or infection, as the body doesn’t see it.
Q: How does it feel to be part of the National Inventors Hall of Fame with people like Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla?
It was quite unexpected, as I just considered that finding applications for a NASA-developed material was just part of my job. Although I am now a member with these other famous people, some of whom are recent Nobel [Prize] laureates [winners], I never figured that what I did was at that level of importance and recognition. It is a great honor, and I am still getting over it.
Q: What advice would you give to kids who are interested in science, technology, and inventing?
Read and ask questions. Your teachers can only teach so much to a class in a given period of time. Therefore, your education and learning is not always what you do in class, but what you spend your time doing outside of class.
Innovation and invention require timing. If you have an idea, do your research first, before you ask questions. Understand that those who know or like you are not necessarily the people who will think you have a good idea.
As you go through the invention process, you will unfortunately have to learn to not include people that cannot help you, even though they might be your friends and you like them. These people can stall and discourage your activities without knowing they are doing it.
Lastly, consider that you might not have a good idea, or that things might be beyond your abilities. This is why “prior art” research, and the ability to listen to people whose expertise is close to what you are trying to accomplish, are so important. [They help] you wisely spend your time and resources. For each invention, remember the saying, “Everyone starts in the mailroom”—this means each invention process starts at the beginning.
Q: Have you ever worked on an invention that just didn’t work out and you couldn’t solve the problems? What did you learn from that experience?
Oh yes! Failure is a substantial part of the process ... An important part of failure is recovery, and understanding that everyone fails, they just don’t like to admit it. What I learned is not to take failure personally. Failing does not equate to being a failure; it just means that your assumptions weren’t correct, or you didn’t have the ability to accomplish your goal at that time.
Q: What are the most rewarding things about being an inventor?
Seeing your inventions being used by other people. When people spend money to use your invention, it means that you have created something that has value to other people. They recognize this value by deciding to buy your invention versus something else.
Q: What was the first invention you ever made, and what inspired you to make it?
As a child, I came up with new ways to build things. But I couldn’t execute those ideas because I didn’t have the knowledge of tooling to make them a reality.
For example, as a teenager, I was earning money repairing skis and mounting bindings by hand. I needed a self-centering jig to position the screw holes on the ski before I drilled the holes that fasten the binding to the ski. People get really upset if you miss-drill a hole or are slightly off when mounting a binding and ruin a pair of skis. I designed a jig, but I couldn’t make it. Kids don’t have the money to afford custom machining, a type of precision metal work, so I could not make the jig. In order to make your invention, you need money.
Q: How do you come up with new ideas for inventions?
Well, it is true that “necessity is the mother of invention,” so I guess it is when I run into a problem, or I get paid to solve someone else’s problem. I think the foundation to inventing is to research the problem that matches my expertise. I read what others have done to approach the solution to a similar problem before getting started. You will be much more successful if you learn from the efforts others made that came before you.
Everyone has ideas all the time. However, a large part of success is having a well-thought-out plan of execution based largely on your knowledge and abilities. As a person knowledgeable in materials, it would be very difficult for me to come up with a medicine that helps sick people, despite the fact that it would be a great problem to solve.
Q: What are the most important qualities that an inventor needs to have?
Persistence is a necessary, but not a sufficient condition. A well-thought-out plan of execution includes what other people did, where they either went wrong, or how you will apply what they did that helps you. Examples of what other people did is called “prior art” and it includes patents, publications, and discussions with subject matter experts.
Lastly, have milestones, or success points that you need to achieve, so that you avoid the trap of constantly working on unfeasible [impractical] ideas. Recognizing when it is time to set something aside to pursue other things is very important. We love to hear about things like “divine inspiration,” “getting lucky,” or “the problem somehow working itself out,” but that is NOT how it works.
Check out this cool video from the Inventors Hall of Fame:
Patience and Perseverance: The Robert Bryant Story.
Images: NASA/Sean Smith, NorGal/Getty, NASA, mr.suphachai praserdumrongchai/Getty, SDI Productions/Getty
STEAMS69 Science183 DrScotti51 Perseverance61 Persistence5 Goals228 Careers196 Space61