NIU’s Technology Commercialization Center will hold an opening reception for a new photographic exhibition honoring women inventors Friday afternoon.

NIU President John La Tourette also will make a special presentation to associate biology instructor Pat Vary, the first NIU faculty member to receive a patent for an invention. The opening reception begins at 3:30 p.m.

The exhibit will be making its only Illinois appearance here at NIU. The Women’s Studies program, the Art Museum and University Resources for Women are sponsoring the exhibit along with the Technology Commercialization Center.

Susan Cochran, assistant director of NIU’s Technology Commercialization Center, feels the exhibit is a chance for people to see some women inventors of the past and their accomplishments.

“Our center encourages people to take their ideas and commercialize them in some way,” Cochran said. “This exhibit shows how common people took their ideas and made some very useful inventions.”

The photographic exhibition showcases the inventions of women ranging from cookware to makeup. It also shows some of the barriers that have discouraged women inventors throughout the years and examples of their different patents and trademarks.

The exhibit is presently on loan from the Goldstein Gallery at the University of Minnesota. It will be showing at the NIU Art Museum located on the second floor of Altgeld Hall from today to April 5. It is open to the public free of charge.

For more information, call 753-1238.