Two electrical and computer engineering professors have been named Fellows in recognition of their contributions and remarkable achievements to advancing engineering and invention. Professor Mihri Ozkan has been named as a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI) and associate professor Hamed Mohsenian-Rad was named a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (IEEE).

Ozkan was recognized for her dedication to developing green technologies and for her leadership and activism against climate change. Her lab engineers beach sand, portabella mushrooms, Silly Putty, organic greens, waste bottles, metal oxides, and carbon-based materials at the nanometer scale for use as anode or cathode materials in superior green batteries. Ozkan’s research explores new materials for improved, low cost, and environmentally friendly energy storage and performance that can be produced at industrial scale. Ozkan is the second woman in the UC system to be elevated to NAI fellow. 

Ozkan is the first woman in the Marlan and Rosemary Bourns College of Engineering and the fifth UC Riverside professor to join the NAI. The NAI Fellows Program highlights academic inventors who have demonstrated a fruitful spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have tangible impact on quality of life, economic development and the welfare of society. Elevation to NAI Fellow status is the highest professional honor accorded to academic inventors. 

Mohsenian-Rad was recognized by the IEEE for his contributions to the field of smart grid and wireless networks. His research interest include modeling, data analytics, control, and optimization of power systems and smart grids. Mohsenian-Rad has received a number of awards, including an NSF CAREER award, Best Paper Awards at multiple IEEE Power and Energy Society and Communications Society conferences, and the Bourns College of Engineering Distinguished Teaching Award. 

IEEE Fellow is an honor reserved for select IEEE members who have made extraordinary contributions and accomplishments in any of the IEEE fields of interest. Each year, following a rigorous evaluation, less than 0.1% of IEEE voting members are selected for this prestigious member grad evaluation. 

 The college now has 103 faculty members who have been recognized as Fellows.