 Patel currently holds 36 U.S. patents relating to lasers and laser applications.He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Sciences, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Physical Society, the IEEE, the Optical Society of America, the Laser Institute of America, the American Society of Laser Medicine and a Senior Fellow of the California Council on Science and Technology.In 2018 C. Kumar N. Patel became an Honorary Member of the American Laser Study Club which a year later named award in his honor.