On September 11, 2013, six faculty members from the Urbana-Champaign campus gave brief presentations to the University of Illinois Board of Trustees on their research and outreach activities. The presentations underscore the broad excellence of the campus, and give a keen insights into the factors that attract outstanding faculty to Illinois, and why they choose to stay. Professor Boppart directs the campuswide Imaging at Illinois initiative and is head of the Biophotonics Imaging Laboratory at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology. His team is developing novel optical imaging technologies for basic biological discovery and for translational applications in medicine and surgery.