Rohit Bhargava Honored with 2025 Campus Award for Excellence in Faculty Leadership

5/27/2025 Thomas Bruch

Rohit Bhargava, Grainger Distinguished Chair in Engineering and director of the Cancer Center at Illinois, has been honored with the Executive Officer Distinguished Leadership Award for his visionary stewardship in growing CCIL from a “big idea” into a thriving institute of more than 120 faculty and hundreds of trainees. Under his leadership, the center has forged strategic partnerships, secured major federal grants, and built new research and educational facilities, establishing Illinois as a national model for translating basic science and engineering breakthroughs into real-world cancer solutions. His efforts have not only expanded the campus’s cancer research capacity but also created mentorship and leadership programs that empower the next generation of scientists.

Written by Thomas Bruch

Bioengineering professor Rohit Bhargava, Grainger Distinguished Chair in the Department of Bioengineering

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign presents the Campus Awards for Excellence in Faculty Leadership each year to distinguished faculty who enrich the intellectual vitality of campus and the broader community.

The awards were presented in three categories — faculty mentoring, distinguished executive officer and outstanding faculty leadership — to four faculty members during a ceremony hosted by the Office of the Provost on campus this week.

Rohit Bhargava, a professor of bioengineering and the Grainger Distinguished Chair in Engineering and the Phillip and Ann Sharp Director of the Cancer Center at Illinois, received the Executive Officer Distinguished Leadership Award. This award recognizes outstanding academic leadership and vision by an executive officer within a college or campus unit who has led diverse groups through strategic improvements within their unit or campus.

Bhargava has been a pioneering figure in numerous efforts to position Illinois at the cutting-edge of biological research, but his role in the creation of the CCIL marks his most lasting contribution to the university. Under his leadership as the founding director, the CCIL has evolved from just an idea into a campus institute engaging over 120 faculty members and hundreds of students and postdoctoral fellows. Bhargava also cultivated strategic partnerships to grow the CCIL into a new national model in which basic sciences and engineering discoveries are propelled to provide solutions that impact those affected by cancer. His vision and organizational efforts have led to exponential growth in the university’s cancer research capabilities, innovative educational programs, new physical facilities, faculty mentoring and leadership development programs, awarding of many major federal grants and the translation of Illinois discoveries to benefit public health.

This story first appeared on the Illinois News Bureau website and can be accessed here.

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This story was published May 27, 2025.