USC to host next year’s National Academy of Inventors annual convention in L.A.

USC intends to provide scientists with the Hollywood star experience next year during the National Academy of Inventors’ annual event in Los Angeles, as announced by organizers on Thursday.

The university is set to host an exclusive opening reception next summer as part of the June 1-4 conference taking place in Southern California. Inventors from across the nation will gather at Town and Gown located at the USC University Park Campus, where the university and the academy will honor them with a celebration reminiscent of the Hollywood Walk of Fame — featuring Oscar-sized Tommy Trojan statuettes.

The theme for NAI 2026 is “Spotlight on Our Stars” to honor inventors as luminaries in their own right who have illuminated the world with their innovations and creations.

Additional events will unfold at the Loews Hollywood Hotel, next to the Dolby Theatre, the venue for the annual Academy Awards.

“USC is privileged to host NAI 2026. Los Angeles is a bustling hub of top-tier research institutions and a strong network of biotech firms and startups collaborating with academia,” remarked Ishwar K. Puri, USC senior vice president of research and innovation. “We draw and nurture highly skilled professionals, researchers, and students from around the globe.”

The National Academy of Inventors, established in 2010, serves as a nonprofit entity focused on acknowledging and promoting academic inventors. Attaining NAI Fellow status is widely recognized as the highest professional honor bestowed upon inventors. The organization also collaborates with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Together, they honor and celebrate visionary inventors whose groundbreaking research and patented technologies are fostering significant societal and economic progress across the national innovation landscape.

L.A. “natural fit” for the National Academy of Inventors annual convention

“Los Angeles, as well as California, stands as a dynamic hub of innovation and a catalyst for social and economic impact both nationally and globally,” mentioned Paul Sanberg, NAI founder and president. “With its status as a home to innovative institutions like the University of Southern California, UCLA, Caltech, and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, L.A. emerged as the perfect location for our significant 15th annual conference.”

“We eagerly anticipate collaborating with our member institution USC for what promises to be an uplifting and enlightening gathering of the world’s leading visionaries in innovation,” added Sanberg.

USC is among the 274 NAI member institutions. The university hosts 29 NAI Fellows and 26 Senior Members. Among USC’s NAI Fellows are USC Life Trustee and Qualcomm co-founder Andrew Viterbi, and Ming Hsieh, whose 2006 donation has supported the USC Viterbi Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering/Electrophysics; ophthalmologist and engineer Mark Humayun at USC Viterbi and the Keck School of Medicine of USC; and Shrikanth Narayanan, the research director of the Information Sciences Institute at USC Viterbi and the university’s vice president for presidential initiatives.

USC Senior Members comprise Emily Liman, a professor of biological sciences at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences who holds the Harold Dornsife Chair in Neurosciences, and Dean Pinchas Cohen of the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology. Other USC Fellows include Ellis Meng, USC Viterbi vice dean for technology innovation and entrepreneurship as well as a professor of biomedical engineering and electrical engineering.

This week, the academy welcomed Francisco Valero-Cuevas, a USC Viterbi professor of Biomedical Engineering, Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Computer Science, and a professor at the USC Division of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy.