Mojdeh Bahar (Fed)

Mojdeh Bahar is the associate director for innovation and industry services at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). In this capacity, she is responsible for the NIST suite of technology partnership, quality and advanced manufacturing programs, including the Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership, the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, and the Office of Advanced Manufacturing, as well as the Technology Partnership Program.

Ms. Bahar comes to NIST from the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), the chief scientific in-house research agency of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), where she served as the assistant administrator for technology transfer. There, she had broad responsibility for managing the intellectual property that evolved from the research program of ARS and served as a resource for management of intellectual property and technology transfer across the USDA. She led ARS's interactions with government agencies, industries, commodity groups and universities on matters dealing with intellectual property and technology transfer. 

Prior to ARS, Ms. Bahar served as the chief of the Cancer Branch at the Office of Technology Transfer at NIH. There, she led a team responsible for marketing, patenting and licensing NIH and FDA inventions in the areas of cancer, gene therapy and biological response modifiers. Prior to that, Ms. Bahar was an examiner with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). During her tenure at the NIH, she first served as the regional coordinator for the Mid-Atlantic Region of the Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer (FLC) from 2008 to 2011 and then as the national chair from 2011 to 2013. 

Ms. Bahar has spoken nationally and internationally on a wide spectrum of topics ranging from restriction practice, double patenting and claim drafting to technology transfer and commercialization, business development and licensing. 

A patent attorney registered to practice before the USPTO, the State of Maryland, the United States District Court for the District of Maryland, and the United States Court of Appeals for Federal Circuit, Ms. Bahar is also a Certified Licensing Professional (CLP) and a Registered Technology Transfer Professional (RTTP). She is also a certified mediator. She is a graduate of the University of Maryland School of Law and received a Master of Arts degree from New York University and a Bachelor of Science degree with honors in chemistry and French from Dickinson College.

• Inducted into Circle of Excellence, The Daily Record

• Gears of Government Award (2020)

• ARS Administrative and Program Management Award – Communication Category (2019)

• Named one of Top 100 Women in Maryland by The Daily Record (2015, 2019 and 2021)

• Harold Metcalf Award for sustained service to the FLC (2018)

• NIH Director's Award

• NIH Mentorship Award
• 7 NIH Merit Awards
• Federal Labs Consortium (FLC) S.T.E.M Award
• 3 FLC Excellence in Technology Transfer Awards
• FAES NIH Team Teaching Award
• Volunteer of the Year Award by Maryland Economic Development Association (2014)
• Abraham Lincoln Honor Award
• Presidential Volunteer Service Award