CUNY’s Blaho Named Senior Member of National Academy of Inventors

In early June, John Blaho, CUNY Director for Industrial and Applied Research, will be inducted as a senior member of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI), on behalf of the City University of New York (CUNY). Blaho is the first CUNY representative to receive this honor.  

NAI senior members are active faculty, scientists, and administrators with success in patents, licensing, and commercialization, and have produced technologies that seek to bring positive impact and change. They foster a spirit of innovation within their communities and institutions while educating and mentoring the next generation of inventors.

Blaho will join the incoming class of 230 NAI senior members at the induction ceremony, part of the NAI 15^th annual meeting to be held in Los Angeles on June 1-4, 2026. CUNY will also be inducted into NAI as a new member institution.

This year’s class of incoming NAI senior members includes inventors from 82 institutions worldwide, collectively holding more than 2,000 U.S. patents, recognizing innovators who are translating research into real-world impact. With this year’s inductees, there are 945 senior members, holding almost 11,000 U.S. patents and representing more than 100 NAI member institutions worldwide.

Blaho is not only an inventor himself but also creates broader impact through the numerous entrepreneurship programs he runs, empowering innovators to produce technologies that drive change. Through his roles as Principal Investigator and Program Director of the NYC Innovation Hot Spot, Empire Corps, and the National Science Foundation NY I-Corps Hub, Blaho continues to champion the commercialization of breakthrough technologies and support researchers bringing discoveries from lab to market.