2020 Distinguished Professors

The UIC Distinguished Professorship recognizes scholarship, creativity and leadership. Faculty members are nominated by their peers and are selected by a committee that includes others who have received the honor.

This year’s distinguished professors are:

Philip Burton, professor and founding chair of graphic design in the College of Architecture, Design, and the Arts, has been instrumental in developing UIC’s graphic design program. Burton, who joined the faculty in 1989, was named a Fellow of the American Institute of Graphic Arts in 2003 and awarded the Julius Adams Stratton Prize for Intercultural Achievement by the Friends of Switzerland/Boston in 2016.

Isabel Cruz, professor of computer science in the College of Engineering, joined the UIC faculty in 2001. Her main areas of research include data science/big data, databases, geographic information systems, artificial intelligence, information visualization and computer security. She also is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and has received awards such as the National Science Foundation CAREER Award.

Cecilia Gerber, professor of physics and director of undergraduate studies in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, focuses her research on studying the properties of the Top Quark and looking for evidence of the Higgs Boson at hadron collider experiments. She was elected a fellow of the American Physical Society in 2010.

Ghanshyam Pandey, professor of pharmacology in psychiatry and pharmacology in the College of Medicine, joined UIC in 1981. His main research interests are in the neurobiology of mood disorders such as bipolar illness and depression, schizophrenia and suicide. He has served as principal investigator on many National Institute of Mental Health studies.

Keith Rodvold, professor of pharmacy practice in the College of Pharmacy, conducts research in the area of clinical pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of anti-infective agents, with a focus on drug penetration and disposition in special populations. He’s won awards from the American College of Clinical Pharmacy and has been elected a fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, among other organizations.