Gaharwar named 2021 Presidential Impact Fellow

Dr. Akhilesh Gaharwar, associate professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, is among the 20 exceptional Texas A&M University faculty honored as 2021 Presidential Impact Fellows.

The award recognizes rising stars in their respective fields who embody the university’s commitment to advancing knowledge through transformational learning, discovery, innovation and impact for Texas and the world.

Gaharwar received his Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from Purdue University and completed his postdoctoral training from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University. Since joining Texas A&M in 2013, Gaharwar has performed impactful, leading-edge research at the interface of materials science, biomedical engineering and cell biology. He has pioneered novel ideas and developed new nanomaterials that have and will continue to shape the field of biomaterials.

Gaharwar is a prolific young researcher in the field of bioengineering. He has edited multiple books/journal special issues and is an author on almost 130 peer-reviewed journal articles, editorials and review papers and five book chapters. He also has submitted five patent/disclosure applications. His work has been published in leading journals and routinely highlighted in international media. Gaharwar has made a lasting impact in various areas of research, as evident by the high number of citations, more than 10,000, his manuscripts have received. He has received funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Science Foundation and the Department of Defense.

Recently, Gaharwar was named associate editor for the leading biomaterials journal, ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, which serves the interdisciplinary community of chemists, engineers, physicists and biologists focusing on newly discovered materials and interfacial processes.

Gaharwar’s interdisciplinary research has been recognized with over 30 major national and international awards, including the prestigious NIH Director’s New Innovator Award, the Dean of Engineering Excellence Award, the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station Research Impact Award, the Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering (CMBE)-Biomedical Engineering Society Rising Star Award, the CMBE Young Innovator Award and the Dimitris Chorafas Foundation Award.