Engineering dean joins prestigious American Academy of Arts & Sciences

Omolola “Lola” Eniola-Adefeso, the UIC College of Engineering dean and Richard and Loan Hill Department of Biomedical Engineering professor, was elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences on April 23. 

Eniola-Adefeso joins nearly 250 electees from prestigious universities, museums, research institutions and news organizations, as well as independent artists. She was elected to the Mathematical and Physical Sciences Class in the Engineering and Technology subcategory. 

“This is an incredible honor, made even more meaningful because the academy cuts across the arts and sciences,” she said. “It’s mind-blowing that this group of phenomenal leaders see my career as worthy of being included.”

The 14,500-member Academy began in 1780 “to gather knowledge and advance learning in service to the public good.” Composed of scholars, storytellers, advocates and artists, the academy’s membership includes Albert Einstein, Martin Luther King Jr., Stephen Hawking, Amy Tan and M. Temple Grandin. Eniola-Adefeso joins this group for her contributions to chemical and biomedical engineering and her consistent support of underrepresented student and faculty researchers. 

In October 2024, Eniola-Adefeso joined UIC as its 10th College of Engineering dean. She received her doctorate in chemical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and previously was the associate dean for graduate and professional education and the Vennema Professor of Chemical Engineering in the University of Michigan College of Engineering.

Eniola-Adefeso stages her research where biology and engineering collide: the bloodstream. Through her microscope, the circulatory system is a keenly crafted refinery, where pipes — or blood vessels and veins — transport nutrients through the body. Her goal is to understand how the tiny particles in our bloodstream navigate this complicated map and to design targeted drugs that travel with the same confidence. 

“How do you go from large blood vessels to smaller blood vessels to get to the right organ or tumor? How do I engage the immune system to help me? The answers will help us target and treat diseases that we still struggle to reach,” she said. 

Eniola-Adefeso is the seventh UIC faculty member to join the academy. 

“I’ve looked at the list on the website many times, and it warms my heart that UIC is listed next to my name. It feels like it’s more for the community than it is for just me. In fact, one of my colleagues sent me an email saying that they are so encouraged to see UIC on that list,” Eniola-Adefeso said. 

She hopes this honor will help spread the word about the UIC College of Engineering, where she said she is “blown away by the creativity and incredible talent. 

“I recently attended an undergraduate research expo, and I was almost moved to tears by the energy and the incredible work that the students put in,” she said. “As somebody who’s been in academia for more than two decades, it’s rare that I get emotional, but that’s the kind of place that (the UIC College of Engineering) is.” 

The first two people with whom Eniola-Adefeso shared the good news are long-term mentors and colleagues from her assistant professor days: Nicholas Peppas, a chemical and biomedical engineer at the University of Texas at Austin; and Sharon Glotzer, Eniola-Adefeso’s former department chair at the University of Michigan.

“It gives you a sense of the community that surrounded me as I started my career,” Eniola-Adefeso said. “Part of how I persisted and began to do so many things is because I had my academic village.”  

Eniola-Adefeso hopes to cultivate a similar academic village at UIC. 

“I found my voice in engineering in an environment very similar to UIC,” she said. “Now that I’ve come this far, I’ve had an intense desire for me to give that back to people like me, to lead the College of Engineering to create the same experiences I had almost three decades ago. 

“It feels like UIC is going to be my give-back moment, and this is just the beginning.” 

The academy will officially honor Eniola-Adefeso with an induction ceremony in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in October — exactly one year after she joined UIC.