Tanvi Bhatt establishes an endowed scholarship for students pursuing research careers
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Physical therapy professor Tanvi Bhatt ’05 PhD Movement Sciences has established a new scholarship that will support MS or PhD students in Rehabilitation Sciences and DPT students who are working with a PT faculty mentor to explore new research.
The UIC Tanvi Bhatt Endowed Scholarship will distribute its first $1000 award in Spring 2027, and the fund’s investment earnings will provide support for students in perpetuity.
Bhatt’s motivations for beginning this scholarship were both personal and professional as a long-time faculty member and an alumna of AHS.
“I recently finished 25 years of being at UIC and 20 years of employment here, so I’ve been thinking of doing this for a while,” Bhatt said. “I really wanted to give back, because when I was a student — and I was an international student — I received the Torrance and the Roach scholarships, and that helped me travel to some international conferences.”
Bhatt’s aim is to support and encourage students who are focusing their careers on research despite the challenges on that path.
“With the current environment, where securing research funds is more difficult, and in our field, where physical therapy is moving toward evidence-based practice, I really want to see younger generation students be involved in some sort of research activities,” Bhatt said. “And it could be any kind of research. It doesn’t have to be laboratory focused; it can be community-based research, participatory research — in whatever field they are in.”
Bhatt’s own research explores alternative cognitive and motor therapies. In late 2024, she was awarded two major grants, exceeding $1.5 million and $3 million, from the U.S. Department of Defense and the National Institute on Aging. The first grant supports a three-year study on functional balance interventions for people with multiple sclerosis. The second studies task-specific balance training to reduce the risk of falls among aging adults. More recently, she has received a $500,000 award from the National MS Society for a mentor-based postdoctoral fellowships proposal on reducing mobility dysfunction in people with MS.
Bhatt hopes her endowed scholarship will continue to grow with the support of faculty who might consider donating a portion of award winnings, alumni looking to give back or other friends of AHS. Anyone can contribute to the UIC Tanvi Bhatt Endowed Scholarship by visiting yourgift.uic.edu/Tanvi.
Bhatt reflects on her early career at UIC fondly, remembering that as she hit every milestone, she developed the urge to reach just one step higher.
“I was a clinician, and at every step after my PhD I thought I’m never going to go back to do a postdoc. Then I did my postdoc, and I thought I’m never going to be a faculty member. Then I became a faculty member, and I thought, RO1s and grants, I just want one. And now I have several.”
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I feel like UIC has shaped my life so much and I just want that spark, as our chancellor says, to be alive in students who would like to pursue research and give them a chance to explore. Every little amount counts, and if they can use it towards research activities, that’s great.