UC Riverside Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor Mihri Özkan was selected as a National Invention Ambassador for the National Invention Ambassadors Network in the United States. The appointment, announced by UC Riverside on September 21, 2026, was made במסגרת a five-year partnership between the National Academy of Inventors (NAI) and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
Özkan's responsibilities include mentoring students, researchers, academics and entrepreneurs. The new role covers expanding knowledge of intellectual property, promoting invention through workshops and conferences, and helping transfer university research into real-world applications through patents, licensing and entrepreneurship.
The national network expands its scope
NAI and USPTO launched the Invention Ambassador program in October 2024 to promote academic invention and share best practices across the innovation ecosystem. The National Invention Ambassadors Network, announced in 2026, builds on the previous structure's focus on speaking engagements and training through a broader national network.
The network brings together mentoring, intellectual property education, research commercialization and university-industry-government partnerships within a single structure. Özkan also leads the Bridging Innovation Initiative, which aims to assess and strengthen universities' innovation capacity.
Research on energy and artificial intelligence
Özkan's academic work focuses on next-generation batteries, sustainable energy systems, carbon management and technologies that use artificial intelligence to reduce the carbon footprint. Moving this research from the laboratory to patents, licensing and societal benefit is among the leading priorities of her new role.
Özkan's institutional recognition in the field of invention also grew in 2025, when Mihri Özkan and Cengiz Özkan became the first married couple to be named NAI Fellows. During the same period, Mihri Özkan's work as an NAI invention ambassador was recognized. According to her NAI profile, Özkan has approximately 50 issued U.S. and international patents, more than 400 peer-reviewed publications and over 15,000 citations.
In her new role, Özkan will support efforts to take scientific discoveries beyond laboratories and help young people turn their ideas into innovative products and solutions. The National Invention Ambassadors Network pursues this goal through a broader framework that combines individual mentoring with intellectual property knowledge, technology transfer and the development of universities' entrepreneurial capacity.
