CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign presents the Campus Awards for Excellence in Faculty Leadership each year to distinguished faculty who enrich the intellectual vitality of the university and the broader community.
The awards were presented in three categories — faculty mentoring, distinguished executive officer and outstanding faculty leadership — to five faculty members during a ceremony hosted by the Office of the Provost on campus in March.
The awards and recipients, with descriptions from their nominators, are:
David Cahill, a Grainger Distinguished Chair in Engineering and a professor of materials science and engineering, received the Excellence in Faculty Mentoring Award. This award recognizes a faculty member who has demonstrated an outstanding commitment to faculty mentoring by actively assisting pretenure and mid-career faculty in developing their career.
During his time as head of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering from 2010-2018, Cahill transformed and rejuvenated the unit through the hiring of more than a dozen junior faculty members who have received 23 Young Investigator Awards and now lead nationally recognized research programs — a direct reflection of his mentorship acumen. Cahill’s legacy of support and guidance extends well beyond the scope of research. He is a thoughtful advisor on career strategy while assisting colleagues with difficult transitions, from attaining tenure to promotion to full professor and beyond, all of which Cahill has keenly observed in his 35-year career at Illinois. Cahill also emphasizes a commitment to work-life balance and is uniformly praised for his mentorship as empathetic, supportive and grounded in respect for each individual’s circumstances, including family responsibilities and life outside the university.
Paul Braun, the director of the Materials Research Laboratory, a Grainger Distinguished Chair in Engineering and a professor of materials science and engineering, and Gene Robinson, the former director of the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology and current executive director and CEO of the Discovery Partners Institute and Swanlund Chair of Entomology, each received the Executive Officer Distinguished Leadership Award. This award recognizes outstanding academic leadership and vision by executive officers within a college or campus unit who have led diverse groups through strategic improvements within their units or campus.
Braun has placed the Materials Research Laboratory onto an upward trajectory in the decade since he was named director, welcoming growth in all phases of the lab’s operations. Almost every relevant metric for MRL has increased since Braun’s leadership began in 2015 — faculty research teams, overall research space and annual research expenditures. The breadth of research activities encompassed within the MRL has also expanded, with research centers established for the fundamental physics of quantum states, the engineering of aerospace vehicles and multiple spheres of the biosciences. But Braun’s most vital impact on the MRL has been opening the doors of the lab to everyone. The MRL’s facilities function not only as a transformational hub for research but also as an open, experiential classroom, available 24 hours a day and seven days a week. Thousands of graduate and undergraduate students gain hands-on experience at MRL each year, plunging the next generation of scientists into the heart of world-class research and innovation.
During his tenure leading the IGB from 2011 to 2026, Robinson elevated the institute into a national powerhouse, pairing interdisciplinary science with an outward-facing mission that reshaped how research connects with society. Under his leadership, grant funding surged by 170%, reflecting both his instinct for emerging scientific frontiers and his ability to assemble high-performing, interdisciplinary teams. Robinson also anticipated the need to translate the institute’s groundbreaking work to the general public — “where science meets society” as the IGB credo goes — and created the IGB Office of Outreach and Public Engagement 15 years ago. Under his leadership, the IGB forged partnerships with major science museums through “World of Genomics” events and developed innovative programs that reached judges, faith leaders, reporters, physicians, business leaders and more with timely, accessible insights into genomics. Robinson’s emphasis on productive working relationships with academic units has influenced campuswide strategy and reflected his belief that harnessing the collective knowledge and energies of faculty, staff and students across the university can produce world-class results.
Sheldon Katz, a professor in the Department of Mathematics and a dean’s special advisor in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and Robin Kar, a professor of law and philosophy, received the Outstanding Faculty Leadership Award. This award recognizes faculty members who have provided extraordinary leadership contributions across many dimensions of shared governance that advance the excellence of a unit, a college and/or the campus, and who exemplify the campus commitment to collaborative decision-making. The award is the highest accolade honoring a faculty member whose professional service has advanced progress toward the Illinois mission.
Katz’s first act as the new leader of Department of Mathematics in 2006 involved setting up a series of listening sessions with his colleagues. Listening and building buy-in on a shared vision of the department remain hallmarks of Katz’s leadership two decades later. His ability to corral diverse perspectives among mathematics faculty and other campus partners and imbue those individuals with a sense of belonging is well-known across the university. That care and thoughtfulness extend beyond Katz’s interpersonal relationships and have been realized in his role in the largest capital project in university history: the renovation of Altgeld Hall and construction of the new Illini Hall. As the dean’s special advisor on the project, Katz’s management of the initiative has persevered through leadership transitions, budgetary constraints and a global pandemic to create a future-focused and inclusive home environment for mathematics, statistics and data science. The relationships he cultivated as a trusted leader of the mathematics program also resulted in an unprecedented amount of philanthropy directed toward the department and the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, including the largest gifts in the college’s history. Above all, Katz has served as a mentor and role model for colleagues at Illinois, nurturing the current and future generations of academic leaders on campus.
Kar has garnered several key leadership roles for the Urbana campus and the University of Illinois System, acting as a compass for the development and adoption of meaningful shared governance. These roles include serving as interim head of the Department of Philosophy for three years, chair of the Senate Executive Committee for three years, chair and vice chair of the of the University Senate for two years and chair of the Committee on Faculty Sexual Misconduct for one year. Kar established a style of leadership in the Department of Philosophy grounded in impartiality and open communication. He was credited with hiring and retaining philosophy professors that restored the department into a top 50 program globally and elevated it into the intellectually vibrant community that it is today. Kar was also cited for his initial work in 2018 in updating systemwide policies regarding sexual harassment, sexual assault and other forms of sexual misconduct and remains a trusted voice as those matters are continuously monitored. His approach to leadership — amid navigating complex problems — rests on listening to different and sometimes opposing perspectives and then “working creatively to harmonize them.” Kar’s record of shared governance is now being applied to his current leadership role as the inaugural associate dean for curricular innovation in the College of Law.
