The Grainger College of Engineering
Bioengineering

Bioengineering Professor Rohit Bhargava Named to National Academy of Inventors Fellows

1/22/2026

Two professors at The Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign are among the 169 U.S. distinguished academic and institutional inventors and 16 International Fellows named to the 2025 class. Rohit Bhargava, Professor of Bioengineering and Grainger Distinguished Chair in Engineering, and Jean-Pierre Leburton, Gregory Stillman Emeritus Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Emeritus, join the 2,253 distinguished researchers and innovators selected for the program since its founding in 2012.

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Two professors at The Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign are among the 169 U.S. distinguished academic and institutional inventors and 16 International Fellows named to the 2025 class.

Rohit Bhargava, Professor of Bioengineering and Grainger Distinguished Chair in Engineering, and Jean-Pierre Leburton, Gregory Stillman Emeritus Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Emeritus, join the 2,253 distinguished researchers and innovators selected for the program since its founding in 2012.

Bioengineering professor Rohit Bhargava

Bhargava said, “I am very grateful to be included in this year’s class of fellows. This honor is a credit to the exceptional students and fellows I have had the pleasure of working with at Illinois, as well as to the multi-disciplinary culture at the Beckman Institute and the Cancer Center at Illinois. My laboratory’s innovations involve strong engineering for ideas to become practical and be translated to use, which is greatly facilitated by the Grainger College of Engineering and the Department of Bioengineering.” Bhargava was elected for numerous inventions that have formed the field of infrared chemical imaging and its applications to pathology using artificial intelligence. His innovations extend beyond scientific discoveries, including novel educational programs such as Cancer Scholars as well as leading the formation of the first engineering-focused cancer center in the nation.

Leburton said, “Of course, you are very happy when you receive such a great honor.”  Leburton’s experience in invention began when he joined the University of Illinois in 1981. “I was really interested in nanotechnology, but I don’t think that the name existed at the time. I was looking at the effects that modify the behavior of electronic devices and semiconductor structures when one reduces not only their sizes but also their dimensions.” One of his first patents followed his arrival in Urbana, when Leburton collaborated with NASA before the emergence of nanotechnology.  He had the idea of using layered semiconductors for high-efficiency solar cells that NASA suggested patenting. “However, I thought  it was a hardship not worth the time, but came to regret it later on.”

Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Emeritus Jean-Pierre Leburton 

From then on, Leburton began to conceive several new inventions and ensured they were patented. His “next invention was a new type of transistor operating by quantum tunneling that I patented in 1988, actually 20 years ahead of its time, as this kind of electronic device became popular around 2005, when the patent had expired.” He was, however, more successful with a later invention in electronic sensing of biomolecules, which was licensed by Oxford Nanopore Technology.

Looking over his academic career, he notes, “I could not have done all of this without being here at the University of Illinois, because this is just a great environment in terms of students and faculty, and also in terms of fostering ideas I pursued during my career.”

The 2025 Class of Fellows will be honored and presented their medals by a senior official of the United States Patent and Trademark Office at the NAI 15th Annual Conference on June 4, 2026, taking place in Los Angeles, California.

Grainger Engineering Affiliations

Rohit Bhargava is an Illinois Grainger Engineering professor of bioengineering and is the Phillip and Ann Sharp Director of the Cancer Center at Illinois. He is affiliated with the Departments of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Mechanical Science and Engineering, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, and Chemistry, as well as the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology and the NSF Center on Quantitative Cell Biology. Rohit Bhargava holds the Grainger Distinguished Chair in Engineering.

Jean-Pierre Leburton is the Illinois Grainger Engineering Gregory Stillman Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Emeritus and is affiliated with the Department of Physics and Nick Holonyak Jr. Micro and Nanotechnology Laboratory, Coordinated Science Laboratory, and Material Research Laboratory.

 

This story was published on January 13, 2026, by The Grainger College of Engineering and can be accessed here.

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This story was published January 22, 2026.