Faculty of the Month - February 2026

We received heartfelt nominations for the February 2026 faculty of the month! To nominate someone for recognition, please email Melanie Kirk.

Nrupen Bhavsar, PhD, Associate Professor in Surgery

"During the past 2.5 years of managing his portfolio, Dr. Bhavsar has been a pleasure to work with. He consistently demonstrates a high level of professionalism, collegiality, and respect for administrative processes. His thoughtful communication, responsiveness, and genuine appreciation for our partnership have made our collaboration both productive and rewarding. He approaches our role in managing his research portfolio as a true partner, which fosters trust, efficiency, and a positive working relationships."

—Vaishali Ratia, MHA, Grand and Contracts Manager

"Knowledge is a currency that Dr. Bhavsar has worked hard to become wealthy in and is generous with. He invests in those around him by offering guidance, perspective, encouragement and support. 

He brings the same thoughtfulness to all tasks, from answering biosketch questions for a colleague to discussing the impact of large initiative, and actively welcomes questions and collaboration..

The enthusiasm and the ownership he brings to every part of the process really sets him apart. He always wants to understand the "why" behind the "what" and remains invested through resolution instead of stepping back. During routine work, such as portfolio reviews and proposal submissions, we can approach challenges like puzzles to solve rather than obstacles to overcome. He always makes our contributions feel valuable to expand his scope and understanding. When he asks a question, you can see him taking in the answer and adding it to his own database so that when the time comes, he can use whatever information he has to make something else better. He never wants an answer for the sake of just proving something right or wrong, he wants the information so he can do better.

Working with him, you can see he really just loves knowledge. Gathering it or sharing it makes no difference. He values it and wants everyone to have the same access to understanding. It comes from such an honest place that it makes things feel so much more equal, which in situations like this can blow my mind. Sometimes it will hit me that he is actively working to save lives for years to come, but he makes our talks about tuition remission feel like they matter just as much as every other part of the process because to him, it really does. He really wants to see the whole picture and doesn't brush any part of a process off as insignificant and the same is true for the people he works with."

—Jamie Botinovch, Grants and Contracts Admnistrator