He becomes USC’s fourth faculty member to be named an NAI fellow, joining Prakash Nagarkatti (2018), Mitzi Nagarkatti (2020) and Guoan Wang (2024). Jabbarzadeh is the only fellow this year from a college or institution in South Carolina.
“Invention and entrepreneurship are essential to turning breakthroughs into real-world impact,” Jabbarzadeh says. “The NAI Fellows program champions this mission, helping innovations move beyond the lab to benefit society. I’m honored to be part of this community of innovators.”
A faculty member in the Molinaroli College of Engineering and Computing, Jabbarzadeh teaches biomedical and chemical engineering and is the college’s director of entrepreneurship.
He was also the director of the college’s National Science Foundation Innovation Corps site program, which provided entrepreneurial training to help translate technologies from the laboratory to the marketplace.
Jabbarzadeh’s research focuses on understanding the effects stem cell differentiation has on tissue remodeling and development. His lab is also developing new therapeutics in an effort to enhance the immune system and treat cancer.
“Ehsan has always been entrepreneurial, and he impressed upon our students that meaningful impact requires an entrepreneurial mindset,” says Hossein Haj-Hariri, dean of the Molinaroli College of Engineering and Computing.
“I am proud of his discoveries and the skill with which he advanced them toward commercialization, creating technologies of real value. Watching him grow from an inventive scholar into a world-class entrepreneur who now mentors others has been a joy. This honor is a fitting recognition of his unwavering inventive spirit.”
Jabbarzadeh and the other NAI fellows will be honored at the NAI’s annual conference in June 2026.
USC has a long history of innovation with the university ranked by the National Academy of Inventors as one of the top patent-producing universities in the world for 12 of the last 13 years.