Rashid Bashir - Purdue Distinguished Engineering Alumni/Alumnae - Purdue University

Rashid Bashir

Dean and Distinguished Professor of Bioengineering, Grainger College of Engineering and Vice Chancellor, Chicago Strategic Partnerships, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
MSEE ‘89, PhD EE ‘92

Rashid Bashir’s time at Purdue was both formative and transformative. It was in West Lafayette where his love of research and higher education was born, where his work in 3D silicon microelectronics set him up for his first job, and where he discovered his passion for biology and medicine.

Through his interactions with late Prof. Gerold Neudeck (emeritus), and Profs. Mark Lundstrom, Supriyo Datta, and Robert Pierret (emeritus), he learned the process and impact of research. As a Semiconductor Research Corporation-funded student, he had the benefit of attending conferences and meetings with industry members. “I was able to join National Semiconductor Corporation (NSC) and make an immediate impact given my experiential and hands-on training at Purdue during my PhD,” Bashir said.

In his six years at NSC, he developed and deployed four semiconductor analog and process technologies for manufacturing, laid the foundation for two radio-frequency BiCMOS technologies, and authored 25 patents.

Moving to academia, he completed appointment at Purdue and visiting positions at Harvard Medical School before landing at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign (UIUC), where he remains — currently serving as the dean and Grainger distinguished chair of the Grainger College of Engineering and Chancellor for Chicago Strategic Partnerships. He also was a member of the core founding team for UIUC’s Carle Illinois College of Medicine, the world’s first engineering-based medical school.

Bashir’s group has created lab-on-a-chip innovations and point-of-care diagnostic devices, leading to the creation of two current startup companies. His micro and nanoscale technologies have driven the development of biodevices for rapid tests that can detect disease from bodily fluids — even early signs of sepsis, notoriously difficult to monitor. He also introduced miniature biological robots for applications in cardiac cells and skeletal muscle cells, demonstrating controlled directional motion. This work was highlighted in Popular Mechanics, The New York Times, Popular Science, and CNN and led to his election as a fellow in the National Academy of Medicine. Among other prestigious honors, he is a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

As both an alumnus and former faculty member, Bashir knows a thing or two about the Purdue Engineering ethos: “Hard work, deep foundational knowledge, not being afraid to get your hands dirty, and the value of communication and high-quality presentations.” For that mentality, he was named an Outstanding Electrical Engineer by Purdue’s Elmore Family of School Electrical and Computer Engineering in 2019.

Complementary to his research are 65 patents, 340+ journal papers, and grant funding from the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the U.S. Department of Defense. He has mentored 35+ PhD and 20+ master’s students and 35+ postdoctoral fellows, many of whom are faculty members including MIT, Notre Dame, Rutgers, University of Delaware, Korea University, Yonsei University, & IIT Kanpur, and others.

In the last semester of his PhD, Bashir attended a short course at Princeton University about neuroelectric interface that further sparked his burgeoning interest in bioengineering. In hindsight, he wishes he’d explored that direction much earlier. That’s why he advises students “to take more courses across disciplines during their undergraduate years, even if it takes a little longer to graduate!”

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