Cancer Center at Illinois (CCIL) Program Leader Viktor Gruev was recently inducted into the 2026 class of the American Insitute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) Fellows. Gruev is the Wendell and Rita Dunning Faculty Scholar in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Gruev was nominated and elected by peers and members of the AIMBE College of Fellows for “pioneering development of the first visible-spectrum polarization camera, bio-inspired multispectral sensors, transforming surgical guidance, cancer detection, and biomedical optics.”
Election to the AIMBE College of Fellows is among the highest professional distinctions accorded to medical and biological engineers, comprised of the top two percent of engineers in these fields. College membership honors those who have made outstanding contributions to “engineering and medicine research, practice, or education” and to “the pioneering of new and developing fields of technology, making major advancements in traditional fields of medical and biological engineering or developing/implementing innovative approaches to bioengineering education.”
A formal induction ceremony was held during the AIMBE Annual Event at the Renaissance Arlington Capital View Hotel in Arlington, Virginia on April 13, 2026. Professor Gruev was inducted along with 175 colleagues who make up the AIMBE College of Fellows Class of 2026.
While most AIMBE Fellows hail from the United States, the College of Fellows has inducted Fellows representing more than 35 countries. AIMBE Fellows are employed in academia, industry, clinical practice, and government. AIMBE Fellows are among the most distinguished medical and biological engineers including 4 Nobel Prize laureates and 27 Presidential Medal of Science and/or Technology and Innovation awardees. Additionally, 248 Fellows have been inducted to the National Academy of Engineering, 120 inducted to the National Academy of Medicine, and 56 inducted to the National Academy of Sciences.
Viktor Gruev
Dunning Endowed Faculty Scholar and Professor, Electrical & Computer Engineering
Areas of Research
Breast Cancer, Cancer Imaging, DNA, Electrical/Computer Engineering, Lung Cancer
Research Program and Theme
- Program: Cancer Technology and Data Science
- Theme: Cancer Imaging
Research Focus
Viktor Gruev’s lab focuses on borrowing critical concepts from nature to develop ultra-sensitive, compact, lightweight, and conformal imaging sensors capable of recording spectral and polarization properties with high spatial resolution and to bring these new sensory devices to clinical settings such as cancer detection. Clinical trials with breast cancer patients have used his near-infrared fluorescence goggle technology has been used in clinical trials in patients with breast cancer. His research aims to bring medical imaging technology to resource-limited hospitals and the developing world. This paradigm-shifting technology has established a new trend in image-guided surgery. It enables resource-limited hospitals worldwide with much-needed technology to promote value-based health care.
Editor’s notes:
Viktor Gruev is Co-Leader of the Cancer Technology and Data Science Program at the Cancer Center at Illinois and Dunning Endowed Faculty Scholar and Professor in the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering. Gruev is also an affiliate of the Beckman Institute. To reach him, email vgruev@illinois.edu.