Dr. Frank T. Etscorn, III

(Inducted in 1993)

Dr. Frank Etscorn is the first patent holder for the nicotine patch to help cigarette smokers break the smoking habit. The Habitrol patch is marketed by Ciba-Geigy Pharmaceuticals of Switzerland and he has patents pending in Europe. Dr. Etscorn, now a professor of psychology at New Mexico Tech in Socorro, New Mexico, received his bachelor's degree in psychology from Western in 1971 and his master's degree in experimental psychology from Western in 1973. He received his doctorate in experimental psychology from George Peabody College in Nashville. After graduating from Peabody, Dr. Etscorn moved to New Mexico Tech as an assistant professor of psychology, becoming a full professor and dean of students in 1985. He received the university's Distinguished Teaching Award in 1990.

The nicotine patch, the concept for which he discovered after he accidentally spilled liquid nicotine on his arm, has earned Dr. Etscorn numerous honors including the first "New Mexico Inventor of the Year Award." The patch was hailed as one of the best products of 1992 by Time Magazine and Fortune Magazine. Dr. Etscorn's research has been featured on Good Morning America, CBS News, The Today Show, ABC News, Prime Time and The Discovery Channel and in articles in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Time, Newsweek, U.S. News and World Report and The Chronicle of Higher Education.