Bernard Santarsiero

Bernie is a Research Professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy, and Director of Research Initiatives in the Graduate College and Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research. He joined UIC in 2000 with a focus on drug discovery and natural product research, after research stints at Caltech, University of Alberta, UC Berkeley, Scripps Research Institute, and the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation. He is the first person in his family to complete college and pursue graduate studies. In the past decade, he has worked with the Office of Diversity and Student Affairs to foster greater diversity and inclusion in research and teaching and is committed to promoting greater recruitment and retention of undergraduate, graduate, and professional students from underrepresented communities. This has led to the establishment of several new programs at UIC including L@s GANAS, DuSable Scholars, Bridge to Faculty, and PBRC-PREP. He has served on various UIC and UI committees, including the Diversity Advisory Committee, Latinx Student Success Initiative, Diversifying Higher Education Faculty in Illinois (DFI) Program Committee, UI Academic Programs and Services Scholarship Selection Committee, Provost Mentoring Taskforce, UI Brasillinois Initiative Collaborative Research Grant Review Committee, and Illinois Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation Program Committee. In 2023, he was invited to give keynote presentations on Equity and Diversity at the NIH headquarters, ILSAMP conference, U.S. Department of Education “Raise the B.A.R.” Summit, and APLU Council meeting, and in 2024, he received the Diamond Award by the Not Alone Foundation for Academic Leadership in Higher Education at Morehouse College. This year, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Chancellor’s Committee on the Status of Latinos and the is one of the recipients of the 2025 Chancellor’s Academic Professional Excellence Award.