Trio of USF professors receive national recognition for innovation

Three professors at the University of South Florida have been selected by the National Academy of Inventors as 2025 Fellows — the highest professional distinction granted only to academic inventors. 

The new NAI fellows are: Prasant Mohapatra, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs; Christian Bréchot, a professor in the Division of Infectious Disease & International Medicine at the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine; and Chandrakant Patel, a professor in the USF Institute for Advanced Discovery & Innovation. 

“This recognition represents not only a lifetime of groundbreaking research and creative problem-solving, but also a commitment to turning ideas into tangible solutions that improve lives and advance society,” USF President Rhea Law says in a release. “The selection of these outstanding members of the USF community reflects our university’s spirit of innovation, excellence and impact.”

Some background on each professors includes: 

• Mohapatra, a “distinguished professor” of computer science in USF’s Bellini College of Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity and Computing, has made groundbreaking advances in matters of security and robustness in wireless networks, the release states. Mohapatra is also recognized for pioneering an understanding of how to quantify the quality of surveillance in a wireless sensor network. 
• Bréchot is a senior associate dean for research in global affairs and an associate vice president for international partnerships and innovation, the release says. From 2017 to 2023, Bréchot was president of the Global Virus Network, where he now serves as vice chair of the board and emeritus president. For six years, he was the director general of INSERM, France’s premier biomedical research agency, where he promoted international collaboration in science and research policy. 
• Prior to USF, Patel spent  38 years working at Hewlett Packard, serving as a senior vice president, chief engineer and senior fellow until his retirement in 2024. Patel played a key roll in major advancements in chips, high-performance computing systems, storage, networking, 3D additive manufacturing systems and software platforms. He holds 165 U.S. patents and has published more than 150 papers.

Since 2020, 13 USF staff members have been named Fellows of the National Academy of Inventors and at least 14 have been named senior members, records show. This year, the NAI named 185 university professors worldwide to be the newest Fellows in the Academy, recognized for their impactful inventions and commercialization efforts.