The Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research (OVCR) advances and safeguards all research at UIC to facilitate the discoveries that help others and change the world. By investing, facilitating and ensuring the integrity of the exceptional research of UIC, we are committed to an ambitious, aspirational and collaborative commitment to the mission and vision of the University of Illinois as a major comprehensive urban research university for the 21st century.

Joanna Groden, Ph.D.  |  Vice Chancellor for Research

  • $ 485 M in research funding during fiscal year 2024

  • $ 453 M in research expenditures last year, the highest in UIC history

  • 26 % increase in the awards portfolio over the last 5 years

  • 3,400 research projects in FY24

  • 1 Million square feet of research space on campus

  • # 5 ranking in sponsored research expenditures among Hispanic-Serving Institutions

UIC 2023 Researchers of the Year Heading link

Watch a video featuring the 2023 UIC Researchers of the Year describing their mission and offering advice to young scientists.

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  1. A chamber with light blue tendrils swirling down from the ceiling and red tendrils swirling up from the floor, with irregularly-shaped gray bubbles between.
    Hal Brynteson, Abbas Moradi Bilondi/Computer Science
    The Rayleigh Bénard convection, where a fluid is heated from below and cooled from above, is an important mechanism of mass and heat transfer in nature and in numerous industrial applications. One can cite geophysics, astrophysics, meteorology, heat exchangers, multilayer walls in buildings and cooling of electronic components for example. In the present work, by considering bubbles inside the fluid flow, we aim to investigate the effects of the presence of bubbles on the heat transfer rate. In this visualization, bubbles are shown in between the shifting temperatures, rendered as a volume. Fluid simulation by Abbas Moradi Bilondi and visualization by Hal Brynteson.
  2. A cluster of blue and white spikes point towards the camera on a black background.
    Arani Mukhopadhyay, Anish Pal, Constantine M. Megaridis/Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
    As electronic devices get smaller and faster, which requires them to perform at ever growing power inputs, they develop hot spots which are very difficult to cool. Novel wick-free vapor chambers developed in our lab (MNFTL) at UIC work as efficient heat spreaders that can effectively cool high-power electronic devices. Our vapor chambers often incorporate intricate microstructures with hierarchical roughness (as seen here, nanoneedles growing on micro-hills), that leads to manifold increase of surface area from which water can evaporate easily, thereby cooling down such devices and ensuring better device performance.
  3. A man sits in a simulated driving cockpit holding a steering wheel surrounded by screens showing a racing video game.
    Jim Young/UIC College of Engineering.
    College of Engineering students Uzair Ahmed, Umair Chowdhury, Mohammad Hussain, Jacob Sullivan, and Martin Yousif designed an immersive driving simulator cockpit useful for both laboratory research and video gaming. The project was one of almost 200 on display at Engineering Expo 2023.
  4. birds nesting on ground with lake and sky in background.
    Photo credit: Dan Clark/USFWS
    Landscape view of Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, home to the world’s largest albatross colony, with more than a million Laysan Albatross returning to breed each year. However, invasive house mice began to attack and kill nesting albatross and are consequently slated for eradication in July 2022.
  5. microscopic cell gray-blue with brown lined circle of white in the middle
    The image was acquired by the Research Tissue Imaging Core
    TFF1 expression in porcine lung. The staining was optimized as part of an effort to create an oncopig lung cancer model. The optimization and staining were performed by the Research Histology Core.
  7. gloved hands holding two small computer chips
    Genome Research Core
    Loading of the SpectroCHIP Array into the MassARRAY System (Agena Bioscience) for high-throughput genotyping. This system uses matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization - time of flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometry for the precise detection of genetic variants by analysis of their individual mass, eliminating the need for fluorescence or labeling.