Bardhan, CBE Faculty Member, sees research advances with new appointment to professorship

October 6, 2023 – Associate Professor Rizia Bardhan has been named as the inaugural Jean H. Steffenson Professor in Chemical and Biological Engineering. Jean Steffenson, who passed away in 2021, was a 1960 Biology graduate of Iowa State University. Together with husband Mike (B.S., ChE, ‘59) the Steffensons have been stalwart supporters of the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering for many years. The professorship endowed in Jean’s name is intended to facilitate the work of a CBE faculty member whose work focuses on advancing biomedical technology.

Bardhan joined the CBE faculty in 2020 after becoming an assistant professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Vanderbilt University. At Iowa State she has been a researcher with the ISU-based Nanovaccine Institute, a consortium of 82 researchers at 27 universities nationwide engaged in the use of new therapies for human health. Bardhan also serves as an associate editor of ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, a premier journal in material science and applied technologies.

Bardhan’s research group focuses on nanomedicine and the utility of Raman spectroscopy for diagnostics and image-guided immunotherapies, drug delivery, and light-based treatment across many disease models including cancer, inflammatory bowel diseases, and infectious diseases. Bardhan’s research has been well funded through the National Institute of Health, Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program (CDMRP), the Department of Energy, and the National Science Foundation (NSF). She has published 77 papers thus far in peer-reviewed journals which has received more than 11,000 citations.

She has received numerous awards, including the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP) Career Development Award (2018), National Science Foundation (NSF) Broadening Participation Research Initiation Grants in Engineering (BRIGE) award (2013), the Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award (2014), and was named by Forbes Magazine in the “Top 30 Under 30: Rising Stars of Science and Innovation” (2012). She is also in Iowa State University’s Emerging Leaders Academy Cohort in 2023.

“I am honored to be recognized by the Steffenson Professorship, says Bardhan. “I am excited to propel new directions in my laboratory, and to pursue high risk/high reward research projects with this support.”