URIC Research Impact Day 2027

Neil Kelleher

Neil Kelleher is an internationally recognized leader in top-down proteomics, natural product discovery, and cancer epigenetics. His group develops innovative technologies to advance understanding of proteins in health and disease and enable proteoform-based diagnostics. He is a leading voice in the Human Proteoform Project and serves as Director of the Chemical Life Processes Institute, Northwestern Proteomics, and founding President of the Proteoform Alliance.

Chemistry of Life Processes Institute (CLP)

Danielle Tullman-Ercek

Danielle Tullman-Ercek is the James N. and Nancy J. Farley Professor in Manufacturing and Entrepreneurship, and Professor and Chair in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Northwestern University. She is also Co-Director of the NU Center for Synthetic Biology and Co-Director of the Master of Science in Biotechnology Program. She served as the inaugural Director of SynBREU, which is the first and longest-running NSF-funded Synthetic Biology undergraduate research program. She is particularly interested in engineering multi-protein complexes, such as virus capsids and the machines that transport proteins and small molecules across cellular membranes.

Center for Synthetic Biology (CSB)

Julius B. Lucks

Julius B. Lucks is Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering and Co-Director of the Center for Synthetic Biology at Northwestern University. He is a leader in RNA research and synthetic biology, focusing on developing technologies that tackle global challenges, most recently in the area of global water insecurity. He also leads the first NSF graduate training program in synthetic biology, is a founding member of the Engineering Biology Research Consortium, and co-founded the Cold Spring Harbor Synthetic Biology Summer Course.

Center for Synthetic Biology (CSB)

Vinayak Dravid

Vinayak P. Dravid is the Abraham Harris Professor and Founding Director of Northwestern's NUANCE Center. His research spans microscopy, nanotechnology, and sustainability. Passionate about scientific infrastructure, he champions AI-ready facilities, trusted data provenance, and connected knowledge across disciplines and institutions. A strong advocate for service and community outreach, Vinayak enjoys revealing the complexity, beauty, and elegance of science through microscopy, tours, and public lectures.

Northwestern University Atomic and Nanoscale Characterization Experimental Center (NUANCE)

Brian Mustanski

Brian Mustanski, PhD is Northwestern University Associate Vice President for Research in Social Sciences, Humanities and the Arts, Professor of Medical Social Sciences (Division of Implementation Science), Director of the Impact Institute and the NIH-funded Third Coast Center for AIDS Research (CFAR), and Co-Director of the HIV Implementation Science Coordination Initiative (ISCI). He conducts translational research on the syndemic of HIV, substance use, mental health, and violence among young gay and bisexual men, including large implementation research trials of digital health solutions.

Impact Institute

Vicky Kalogera

Vicky Kalogera is the Daniel I. Linzer Distinguished University Professor and the Director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA) at Northwestern. She also serves as the Director of the NSF-Simons AI Institute for the Sky (SkAI). Kalogera is a leading astrophysicist recognized for her pioneering work on compact objects—black holes, neutron stars, and white dwarfs—and for her leadership in gravitational-wave astrophysics.

Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA)
NSF-Simons AI Institute for the Sky (SkAI)