Driving innovation

Marie Ladino: Sherman has a story, along with a recognition plaque from 3M, to accompany each of her patents, which now total 150. This incredible achievement makes her 3M’s top female patent holder and the current employee with the second-highest number of patents. She’s also named on 3M’s 100,000th patent. She shared with me what made these extraordinary accomplishments possible.

Audrey Sherman: Of my 150 patents, two are just singly in my name. So 148 are with co-inventors. There are over 200—not double-counting anyone—co-inventors with me. I look at science and invention really as a team sport. And so I did make it a goal when I first started filing IP [intellectual property] with the company to work with a lot of people who knew a lot more than I did when I first started out about patents. And I just went to them and said, “How can I help you?” And we figured out a way to do something and then got filing a patent. And now, I’m the one at the other end, saying to everyone, “You need to help me. We need to invent something together. We haven’t done anything together. You and I are going to come up with something that nobody else could ever think of because they are not you, and they are not I. And actually, if we add four more into the mix—wow—that’s going to be really incredible.” The more diversity we bring in, and the more creativity, the better, and so it just works.

Marie Ladino: Why was it important to receive patents for your inventions? 

Audrey Sherman: The patent doesn’t mean that you can do it. It means that others can’t do it. So that exclusivity for a company allows us the time that’s needed to get through all of the processes that we have to do to bring a product to market. No factory output is ever at full efficiency, and it takes a lot of time to do that. So you need to be able to have that time to yourself. And that’s what a patent affords you: the time to yourself with that claim set, so that you can bring it to market and bring out the best product that you can.

Marie Ladino: Tell me about the recognition plaques 3M gives when you receive a patent.

Audrey Sherman: 3M does that for each patent earner, so that the management has something to hand out to acknowledge this accomplishment. And so I used to see them all over the place. Some of the inventors have them on their walls, in their office. Some of them have them down the halls, and some of them just have the boxes they come in, with the plaques still inside, stacked up in the corner of their office. And I decided I am not going to do that. And it was my husband who said, “What are you going to do with these?” And we moved into a new house, and if you can imagine, you walk up the stairwell—well, behind you on the stairwell, there’s just nothing. There’s just big walls. And so we decided, oh, we’re going to just put them in there. And so we designed a way, just like plates on a shelf, to have these rails that we just slide them in, and we could fill up that whole wall. We got 123 there right now, and there’s actually no more room for any more on that area. I never thought this. We planned it at 100, and then we had to hack it off and make it bigger for the 23. So now, luckily, I have another staircase in the house. So we’re eye-balling that one to see if we can display them there. It’s very, very subtle, but it makes such a statement. It’s just incredible to see them all there together.

Marie Ladino: When people come to your house and see those plaques, how do they respond?

Audrey Sherman: I think most people, they understand what a patent is and an invention. And I think when they see them, they just, first of all, they want to know a story. So they’re not arranged numerically either. They’re arranged by who I invented with, which is really cool. And so I do have a story with them. The ones that are very low, that we can see, I talk about it to them. And they are just amazed at how varied they are. And that is just from my experience in the number of people that I invent with—from optics, to adhesives, to things that don’t stick, to duct tape and Command hooks and masking tape.

Marie Ladino: Is there an invention you’re especially proud of?

Audrey Sherman: One of my favorite inventions is the—for the shower and bath—the Command hook. Command hooks were already known, and the customer wanted to put them in the shower, and they wanted to hang the teeniest thing. They wanted to hang a ladies’ razor. It weighs 20 grams, if that, but the Command hooks wouldn’t work, and they didn’t want to use—like everyone—a suction cup. So the company put a big search out for whose adhesive could hold things when they were wet and soapy, and also keep the Command brand of stretching and coming off clean. And so participating in that and submitting the adhesive that I had, that I was working on at the time to stick pavement marking down to wet roads, turned out to be the one that worked, and it was just fabulous. It was the first time that 3M ever commercialized an adhesive along that class of materials, too. And they still use it today. And so that one is really my favorite one because I use that adhesive everywhere, because if it can go in the shower, I actually know it can also go on my dry wall or on my window, too. And so I just use that one all the time. 

Marie Ladino: Audrey Sherman has set a strong example for others as a passionate inventor, innovator, and mentor. And there’s still much more to come from this outstanding scientist. Her constant enthusiasm shows in her work, and her influence is reflected in everyone inspired by her journey.