Dec 12, 2023

Dear colleagues,

I am pleased to congratulate Guann-Pyng (G.P.) Li and David Reinkensmeyer on being named fellows of the National Academy of Inventors.

G.P. Li, Professor, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and Director, California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2), is a pioneer in the development of microelectronics for advanced health and sustainable energy applications. Professor Li also heads Calit2's TechPortal, a business incubator that helps UCI researchers commercialize their inventions. Professor Li has received several awards for his research and published more than 430 papers involving semiconductor microelectronics, micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS), and data analytics for edge actionable intelligence (AI). Professor Li holds 40 U.S. patents with five patents pending, and he has been involved in a range of startup companies as a co-founder or a member of the technical advisory board. Professor Li is a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and the Asia-Pacific Artificial Intelligence Association.

David Reinkensmeyer, Professor, Anatomy and Neurobiology, and Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, combines robotics and neuroscience to develop devices that help people deal with enduring neurologic conditions such as stroke, spinal cord injuries, multiple sclerosis and cerebral palsy. Upon joining UCI in 1997, Professor Reinkensmeyer established a program to create robotic and sensor-based systems for movement training and assessment. Professor Reinkensmeyer is co-inventor of the T-WREX arm training exoskeleton, which is commercialized as ArmeoSpring and used in more than 1,500 rehabilitation facilities worldwide. He is also co-inventor of MusicGlove, a finger dexterity hand training device for people with stroke, which is now being commercialized by Flint Rehabilitation Devices, a company he helped start. He is co-director of the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR)-funded Collaborative Machines Enhancing Therapies (COMET) Robotic Rehabilitation Engineering Center. He holds 12 U.S. patents and is a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.

The National Academy of Inventors Fellows Program is the organization's highest professional distinction awarded solely to academic inventors to recognize innovation that has made a tangible impact on the quality of life, economic development and welfare of society.

UCI now has 18 National Academy of Inventors fellows and 680+ active U.S. patents. Please join me in congratulating Professors Li and Reinkensmeyer on this outstanding recognition.

Sincerely,

Hal Stern
Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor
Chancellor's Professor, Department of Statistics