Organizational structure
Director
Steve Maren Director, Professor smaren@illinois.edu
Steve Maren was named director of the Beckman Institute in 2024. He reports to Susan Martinis, the vice chancellor for research and innovation.
Reporting to the director
Cristina Alvarez Mingote Associate Director for Research alvarez9@illinois.edu
The associate director for research oversees Beckman's research enterprise and shared research facilities. The directors of the Biomedical Imaging Center, Microscopy Suite, and Visualization Lab report to her.
Shawna Graddy Associate Director for Administration sgraddy@illinois.edu
The associate director for administration oversees these groups:
- Budget and resource planning
- Facilities (including security and shipping and receiving)
- The Beckman Café
- Human resources
- Information Technology Services
Meg Dickinson Executive Director of Communications megd@illinois.edu
Stacy Olson Administrative Assistant srolson@illinois.edu
Research theme leaders
Michael L. Oelze Professor oelze@illinois.edu
Mariana Kersh Associate Professor mkersh@illinois.edu
Gabriele Gratton Professor grattong@illinois.edu
Daniel Llano Professor d-llano@illinois.edu
Ying Diao Associate Professor yingdiao@illinois.edu
Joaquin Rodriguez Lopez Professor joaquinr@illinois.edu
Administrative support staff
These staff members support the Beckman Institute's everyday operations and research activities. They report to the director's administrative assistant.
Mollie Stevens Office Support Specialist mollie@illinois.edu
Sandra Helregel Office Manager shelrege@illinois.edu
William Mullins Office Manager wmullins@illinois.edu
Laura Thurlwell Office Manager thurlwel@illinois.edu
Committees
Beckman Institute Executive Committee
BIXC is comprised of the research theme co-chairs, as well as a few other faculty members, staff, and Beckman Institute Fellows. BIXC members, along with the associate directors and the executive director of communications, meet with the director every two weeks to discuss matters of interest.
- Rohit Bhargava (Term: August 2021 to August 2026)
- Marni Boppart (Term: March 2021 to March 2026)
- Qian Chen (Term: March 2021 to March 2026)
- Ying Diao (Term: March 2021 to March 2026)
- Gabriele Gratton (Term: January 2022 to December 2026)
- Fatima Husain (Term: May 2022 to August 2026)
- Mariana Kersh (Term: March 2021 to March 2026)
- Zhengchang Kou (Term: October 2024 to September 2025)
- Dan Llano (Term: October 2023 to October 2028)
- Deana McDonagh (Term: August 2018 to August 2025)
- Michael Oelze (Term: May 2024 to May 2029)
- Tyler Price (Term: October 2024 to September 2025)
- Joaquín Rodríguez-López (Term: April 2024 to August 2028)
- Sepideh Sadaghiani (Term: August 2021 to August 2026)
- Susan Schantz (Term: August 2017 to August 2025)
- Brad Sutton (Term: August 2017 to August 2025)
- Jonathan Sweedler (Term: August 2017 to August 2025)
- Cate Wallace (Term: June 2022 to June 2025)
Program Advisory Committee
The director invites faculty members to join the Program Advisory Committee. The primary duties of this committee are to review the applications for the Beckman Institute Postdoctoral Fellows Program and the Beckman Institute Graduate and Undergraduate Fellows Programs. Members also evaluate research seed grant proposals.
Members are:
- Aleksei Aksimentiev
- Marianne Alleyne
- Ben Auerbach
- Yun-Sheng Chen
- Kathryn Clancy
- Jozien Goense
- Nick Jackson
- Hyun Joon Kong
- Liviu Mirica
- Karen Tabb Dina
- Sam Tawfick
- Yingjie Zhang
Coordinating Committee
The Coordinating Committee consists of the executive officers of units relevant to the Beckman Institute who serve as an advisory body to the director on issues and activities involved in interdisciplinary research on campus. Members of the Coordinating Committee are:
- Jonathan Freund, aerospace engineering
- Rodney Johnson, animal sciences
- Brenda M. Farnell, anthropology
- Brooke White, art and design
- Satish Nair, biochemistry
- Mark Anastasio, bioengineering
- Mark Cohen, Carle Illinois College of Medicine
- Christopher Rao, chemical and biomolecular engineering
- Cathy Murphy, chemistry
- Janet Jokela, College of Medicine
- Uwe Rudolph, comparative biosciences
- Nancy Amato, computer science
- Klara Nahrstedt, Coordinated Science Lab
- Dan Shao, East Asian languages and cultures
- Kiel Christianson, educational psychology
- Jennifer Bernhard, electrical and computer engineering
- Becky Fuller, evolution, ecology, and behavior
- Nicki Engeseth, food science and human nutrition
- Minjoo “Larry” Lee, Holonyak Micro & Nanotechnology Laboratory
- Jeffrey Shamma, industrial and enterprise systems engineering
- Kim Graber, kinesiology and community health
- Hye Suk "James" Yoon, linguistics
- Paul Braun, Materials Research Laboratory
- Nancy Sottos, materials science and engineering
- Vera Hur, mathematics
- Anthony Jacobi, mechanical science and engineering
- Claudio Grosman, molecular & integrative physiology
- Rizwan Uddin, nuclear, plasma, and radiological engineering
- Matthias Grosse Perdekamp, physics
- Diane Beck, psychology
- Paul Kenis, School of Chemical Sciences
- Milan Bagchi, School of Molecular & Cellular Biology
- Pamela Hadley, speech and hearing science
- Yuguo Chen, statistics