Rashid Bashir, director of the Micro and Nanotechnology Laboratory at Illinois, will be the next head of the Department of Bioengineering, beginning August 16, 2013.

As Abel Bliss Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Bioengineering, Bashir leads two efforts to train the next generation of leaders in nanotechnology and bioengineering: the Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) on Cellular and Molecular Mechanics and Bionanotechnology and the Midwest Cancer Nanotechnology Training Center. These programs are funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, respectively.

He is also co-director of the National Science Foundation Science and Technology Center with Illinois, MIT, Georgia Tech, and partner institutions on Emergent Behavior of Integrated Cellular Systems.

“The bioengineering department is at a crucial point in its history, and we have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to grow its size and influence.  Rashid will be vital to seizing that opportunity and capitalizing on the significant support from the Grainger Engineering Breakthroughs Initiative,” said Michael B. Bragg, interim dean of the College of Engineering.