By Penny Gordon-Larsen, May 9, 2024

The end of an academic year brings inherent reflection and celebration, and this year’s achievements of our faculty and students are truly impressive feats that warrant recognition.

While graduation season is mostly about our students, I want to mention the incredible achievement of two Carolina faculty members who were recently elected to the National Academy of Sciences, bringing our total number of inductees to 19. Congratulations to Distinguished Professor of Sociology Arne Kalleberg and Dr. Stanley Lemon, a medical professor in infectious diseases and microbiology and immunology in the UNC School of Medicine, on this impressive honor and distinguishment. Election is a testament to their distinguished achievements and their high regard within their respective fields.

For the more than 6,000 graduating students, including 4,265 undergraduates, 1,530 master’s candidates, and 884 doctoral candidates, this is a momentous occasion. It is a culmination of years of dedication and perseverance.

For the vast majority, research played a critical role in their educational experiences both in the classroom and outside of the classroom. Of those students, 446 wrote honors theses, 407 submitted dissertations (302 in May and 105 in December), and 127 submitted master’s theses (92 in May and 35 in December). I look forward to seeing what these students accomplish in the years to come.

At this year’s graduation ceremony, we will honor our commencement speaker Zena Cardman, an outstanding example of a Carolina graduate. Zena is a double Tar Heel alum with a bachelor’s in biology and master’s in marine sciences. While at Carolina, she conducted research as part of her studies, which took her to the Antarctic and Arctic to study microbial systems in subsurface environments, like caves and deep-sea sediments.

Now, as a NASA astronaut, she is scheduled to serve as commander of NASA’s Crew-9 Mission later this year. During the mission, she will lead a four-person crew to the International Space Station where they will conduct research for months aboard the orbiting laboratory.

So many of our students show this type of transformative potential. I am inspired by the unwavering commitment to research and academic pursuits I see in them daily. The knowledge they’ve acquired and the research contributions they’ve made through countless hours spent in labs, libraries, and classrooms will undoubtedly propel their own success and yield benefits to the citizens of our state and beyond.

I’d like to particularly recognize just a few of our undergraduate students who recently received prestigious and nationally competitive scholarships and fellowships:

• Senior Lizabeth Bamgboye and alumna Maria Silva were awarded the Schwarzman Scholarship, which provides a fully funded master’s program in global affairs at Beijing’s Tsinghua University.
• Rising senior Nicholas Boyer was selected to receive a 2024 Barry Goldwater Scholarship, to pursue his research career. The scholarship is awarded annually to only 450 students.
• Courtney Halverson ’21 has been selected as a 2024 fellow for the Charles B. Rangel International Affairs Graduate Fellowship Program. Funded by the U.S. Department of State, the Rangel Fellowship identifies and develops outstanding young professionals to enhance the excellence and diversity of the U.S. Foreign Service.
• Sophomores Clara DiVincenzo, Lucy Henthorn, and Isabel Leonard were recently awarded the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Ernest F. Hollings Scholarship, a highly competitive scholarship that provides an academic stipend and a paid summer internship at a NOAA facility.

This academic year, 12 graduate students won Impact Awards honoring their contributions to improving the future for the people of North Carolina. That is in addition to the 279 graduate students, representing 42 academic programs, who received prestigious external fellowships.

More than 300 graduate students received external funding awards to fuel their research and creative scholarship. Of those awards, 81 students received National Science Foundation graduate research fellowships, 59 received National Institutes of Health (NIH) F30 or F31 grants, and 2 received NIH supplements. These students will make incredible contributions and impacts as they complete their degrees at Carolina.

These significant accomplishments of our students speak to the quality of our research enterprise and our academic programs. The federal funding they’ve attracted provides critical support for their training and increases their competitive advantage when they compete for jobs after graduation.

And the breadth of student research at Carolina continues to grow. I am thrilled that the Office of Undergraduate Research will be supporting a record-breaking 85 students with Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships this summer, and they will welcome their first cohort of Amgen Scholars, providing even more hands-on research opportunities enabling us to continue training and launching critical thinkers and world-changers.

We also recently announced a $1.5 million gift to the UNC Center for Galapagos Studies from the William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust to create the Kenan Galapagos Fellows Program, which will support three graduate students per year and one post-doctoral fellow per year as they conduct science in the Galápagos Islands. The work that they do will further our understanding of this fragile ecosystem in ways that will translate back to North Carolina and our own coastal barrier islands.

Now is a time to celebrate the hard work, innovation, and unwavering pursuit of discovery and knowledge that defines our research community. By the start of the next academic year, work will be well under way towards achieving the goals we set forth in our new Strategic Research Roadmap. This work will transform the support, infrastructure, and impact of the research enterprise, and I will be thrilled to share our progress with you in the fall.

As we look ahead, I am filled with immense excitement about the groundbreaking discoveries yet to come. Together, through our collective passion and intellectual curiosity, we will continue to push the boundaries of human knowledge.

Once again, congratulations to all our wonderful graduates, students, and faculty! Wishing you a restful and rejuvenating break.

Permalink: A Celebration of Graduates, Students, and Faculty

By Penny Gordon-Larsen, April 11, 2024

Today, I am thrilled to announce the official launch of Carolina’s Strategic Research Roadmap — a bold, actionable plan to solidify Carolina’s position as a global research leader and drive even greater impact and achievement. Developed over a year-long collaborative effort with key stakeholders from across campus, Carolina’s Strategic Research Roadmap serves as a blueprint to propel our research enterprise to even greater heights.

Why a Roadmap?

Our research enterprise has expanded tremendously over the last few decades, and we have had a steady rate of growth in awards. Yet there is more we can do to fully leverage our incredible potential for achievements and impacts. Since its inception, the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research (OVCR) has been without a strategic plan to guide Carolina’s research enterprise. As a result, we have often operated opportunistically, which can have its benefits. Yet at the same time, without a campus-level strategy, we run the risk of not fully leveraging our incredible research potential and leaving opportunities on the table.

Strategic plans bring focus to complex organizations by setting clear goals and objectives. By creating alignment across departments and teams, we will capitalize upon shared goals and vision, allowing mutually-agreed-upon strategic priorities to take shape. The Strategic Research Roadmap we have developed is responsive to gaps and opportunities identified by key stakeholders. Together, we will work to ensure Carolina’s continued research leadership and impact.

How We Got Here

The OVCR engaged a diverse group of stakeholders across campus in a comprehensive process to develop this roadmap. During Phase 1, we gathered insights from key stakeholders including University leaders, deans of schools and research units, directors of pan-campus centers and institutes, and faculty members deeply involved in research activities. We conducted a campus-wide survey and held many stakeholder group discussions to determine how to move forward. Within the OVCR, we analyzed data from the survey and stakeholder meetings to draft the Strategic Research Roadmap, which we then vetted with our key stakeholders and University leadership to finalize.

Together, we worked to identify areas of strength, opportunities for improvement, and strategies to amplify Carolina’s research impact. In addition, we ensured that the roadmap is synergistic with current strategic efforts being led by the Chancellor, the Provost, and other vice chancellors. For example, our priorities will intersect with the four areas of focus put forward by Interim Chancellor Roberts: Enrollment, Master Plan, Applied Science, and Generative AI.

The resulting product is responsive to those needs and aspirations for Carolinaʼs research future that our stakeholders identified during the planning phase. Our thorough process has led to a strong and well-conceived plan that will benefit campus and allow us to do more impactful work that changes and saves lives in North Carolina and beyond.

Strategic Research Roadmap:

Strategic Goals

Enhance
Research Assets

	Fundraising for state-of-the-art research facilities, equipment, data & technology
	Sustainable funding models for technology & equipment
	Re-imagine research cores

Promote
growth & opportunity

	Campus Alignment & Prioritization (supporting Chancellor priorities)
	Support for major funding opportunities
	Mechanisms to drive Collaborative/Convergent Science

Maximize
Value & Impact

	Stakeholder engagement & stewardship (ROI/value)
	Enhance community-engaged & applied research
	Discovery/Translation ecosystem

Key Operational Imperatives

Support & Grow Talented Research Workforce

• Recruitment/Retention

• Agile Research H.R. Process

• Research Career Development

Facilitate Efficient Research Support & Compliance

• Administrative Structures

• Compliance/Data Assets

• Research Navigators

Our Strategic Goals

The roadmap focuses on three strategic goals necessary to sustain and propel our growth:

1. Enhance Research Assets: Build, improve, and maintain state-of-the-art research facilities, equipment, data, and technology to enable success.
2. Promote Growth & Opportunity: Grow Carolina’s research by identifying and investing in strategic opportunities, leveraging existing research strengths, and fostering collaboration that leads to discovery and addresses challenges.
3. Maximize Value and Impact: Increase the impact of Carolina research and communicate its value.

Operational Imperatives

To support these goals, the roadmap also identifies two key operational imperatives, necessary to support the three strategic goals:

• Research Workforce: Support and grow a talented research workforce to ensure Carolina’s continued excellence in research to serve N.C. and the world.
• Research Support and Compliance: Foster an environment that facilitates efficient research processes, promotes integrity, objectivity, and quality of research outputs.

Implementation

Research touches almost all aspects of the University. Any given research project relies on partnership with many operational units across campus. For this reason, we approach implementation in a systems framework that engages key partners in research, notably, Vice Chancellors who are responsible for Finance & Operations, Innovation, and Development, as well as leaders from Carolina’s schools and colleges. Our collaborative engagement with key campus stakeholders throughout the Roadmap’s development means that we have willing campus partners who are invested in its success and who see benefits of campus alignment around strategic research goals.

As we enter Phase 2 – the implementation phase — we will begin to invite campus stakeholders to join implementation workgroups. Three implementation teams will focus on each of the three strategic goals and will include key partners from across campus, fostering a collaborative approach to ensure success. Two additional implementation teams will focus on the two operational imperatives.

Who We Are & How We Will Move Forward

As part of the process, we have updated our mission, vision, and values which are essential to guide our Strategic Research Roadmap. Guided by our values, we will be purposeful and strategic in how we engage our research community as we implement the roadmap.

At the same time, we will continue our broader goal to serve the entire Carolina community. Importantly, the OVCR manages all aspects of the University’s research activity including advocating for and promoting research across all fields of study and research areas. Any improvements we create and implement will be broadly beneficial to campus.

From our comprehensive stakeholder engagement in the strategic planning, it became clear that three guiding principles are essential in how we move forward:

• Innovate: We will accelerate our efforts to innovate and expand our portfolio of pro-innovation research.
• Transform: We will create a more agile research ecosystem, fostering greater collaboration and strategic alignment across campus.
• Renew: We will revitalize key strategic partnerships, both within and beyond North Carolina, to maximize the impact of our research and fulfill the mission of the University.

The Future is Bright

The Strategic Research Roadmap is designed to ensure that Carolina’s research will continue to make a significant impact across our state and the world.

Permalink: Launching Carolinaʼs Strategic Research Roadmap

By , March 14, 2024

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a hub of groundbreaking research, and this Women’s History Month, we celebrate the exceptional Carolina women leading the charge. From principal investigators to early-career faculty, our women researchers are making significant contributions to scientific progress across a diverse set of disciplines. Their discoveries are not only impactful, but they also inspire future generations and propel Carolina’s research to even greater heights.

Leading the Way

It is a thrilling time to see so many women leading organizations in general. Here at Carolina, that progress is evident within our schools, where women now hold eight of 15 dean positions: Janet Guthmiller, Adams School of Dentistry; Nancy Messonnier, Gillings School of Global Public Health; Amy Wall, School of Government; Beth Mayer-Davis, The Graduate School; Mary Margaret Frank, Kenan-Flagler Business School; Valerie Howard, School of Nursing; Angela Kashuba, Eshelman School of Pharmacy; and Ramona Denby-Brinson, School of Social Work.

At the school-level, our research deans are extraordinary, and I am grateful to be able to collaborate with inspiring leaders like Blossom Damania, the vice dean of research for the School of Medicine, and Kari North, the recently appointed associate dean for research at Gillings. I have worked closely with both outstanding researchers over many years and am grateful for their leadership, collaboration, and scientific impacts. Blossom and Kari, like all our research deans, are dedicated to setting strategic direction and providing the research leadership needed to ensure our continued success.

Powerhouse PIs

Some of the top-funded principal investigators at Carolina are women and many lead large, collaborative projects that drive Carolina’s research strengths. These researchers have secured millions in extramural funding, fueling their ground-breaking work, supporting undergraduate research, employing graduate students and technicians, fostering collaboration across departments, and providing depth to our research strengths. Below I mention a selection of these powerful women, though there are far too many to include in a single blog:

Health Sciences

• UNC Nursing Associate Dean Cheryl Giscombe focuses on understanding and reducing stress-related health disparities among African Americans. Last year, she was elected to her second national academy, this time the National Academy of Medicine in recognition of her accomplishments as a leading scholar in mental health, resilience, and clinician wellness whose work has influenced national guidelines.
• In the Gillings biostatistics department, Anastasia Ivanova is the principal investigator of the Data, Modeling, and Coordinating Center for Precision Interventions for Severe and/or Exacerbation-Prone Asthma (PrecISE) Network. The project was awarded by NHLBI to conduct an adaptive precision medicine trial to identify novel treatments for severe asthma.
• Dorothy Cilenti is a leader in maternal and child health with a distinguished career in public health service and research. She directs the National Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Workforce Development Center and serves as a principal investigator for the Maternal Health Learning and Innovation Center where she works to improve health care systems for vulnerable women and children.

Cancer

• Jen Jen Yeh is the vice chair of research in the surgery division of oncology at the School of Medicine. Her research interests focus on pancreatic and colorectal cancer, with a goal of identifying novel therapeutic targets. She leads a NIH-funded team that is studying new therapies for pancreatic cancer and developing new drug combinations and improving treatment selection
• Stephanie Wheeler is a health services researcher interested in how people access quality cancer treatment, with a focus on medically underserved groups. In 2019, she was appointed associate director of community outreach and engagement for the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, highlighting her commitment to bridging the gap between research and the community.

Infectious Diseases

• Vivian Go is the associate director of the Center for AIDS Research Social and Behavioral Science Core and a member of the Institute for Global and Infectious Diseases (IGHID). Her research focuses on the intersection between HIV and co-morbidities including mental health and opioid use disorders, stigma and discrimination among key populations.
• Adaora Adimora, who recently passed away, was a distinguished professor of medicine and a member of the National Academy of Medicine, was a global leader in research on AIDS and HIV. She received the Thomas Jefferson Award to honor her contributions and her impact on medicine and on the wellbeing of citizens of North Carolina and the world.

Energy and Environment

• As the deputy director for the Center for Hybrid Approaches in Solar Energy to Liquid Fuels (CHASE), Jillian Dempsey uses electrochemistry and spectroscopy to understand electron transfer in solar energy conversion. She is a prominent inorganic chemist whose research focuses on electron transfer reactions in renewable energy technologies.
• Jill Stewart is a distinguished professor in the Gillings Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering who has conducted research projects that involve establishing baseline water quality measurements and implementing monitoring programs to track improvements over time. She also serves as deputy director of the NSF-funded Precision Microbiome Engineering Research Center (or PreMiEr) which seeks to enable the development of high impact microbiome technologies that provide innovative solutions to key societal challenges at the interface of human health and the built environment.

Humanities & Social Science

• Senior Associate Dean for Fine Arts & Humanities Elizabeth Engelhardt is a distinguished professor of American studies. Her work has made a significant impact in understanding Southern food and culture. Her newest book, “Boardinghouse Women: How Southern Keepers, Cooks, Nurses, Widows, and Runaways Shaped Modern America,” draws on her deep expertise on the American South.
• Barbara Entwisle, distinguished professor of sociology, led the Carolina Population Center, one of the top population centers in the country, for close to a decade. She was also a former UNC Vice Chancellor for Research, the first woman to serve in that role. Her research focuses on the intersection between populations and environments, which she has continuously approached using innovations in methods to overcome barriers in the field.
• Sian Curtis, statistical demographer, and professor of maternal and child health, has led the MEASURE Evaluation Program, funded by very large grants from USAID, for over two decades. The program includes cutting-edge research to support county-level efforts to respond to tuberculosis, malaria, and other critical health issues across the globe. Many of these efforts build local capacity to effectively counter these, and other, life-threatening diseases.

The Next Generation

Carolina has trained a cadre of amazing women who have gone on to leadership roles that have amplified Carolina’s impacts. For example, W. Kimryn Rathmell, who started her career as assistant professor of medicine and genetics at Carolina now serves as the NIH National Cancer Institute Director. Zena Cardman, who received two Carolina degrees, will serve as commander of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission to the International Space Station later this year. She will also deliver the 2024 keynote address at the university’s spring commencement. Both women have impacted the careers of countless other women with their inspiration and their inspirational pathways to success.

While I have had incredible mentors myself, I am so grateful for my peer mentors and collaborators who impress me daily and who I can count on for a good laugh and a healthy dose of support. I am also grateful for the opportunity to mentor and train the next generation through my work with students and trainees. For example, my very first doctoral student, Melissa Laska, now a distinguished professor at the University of Minnesota, is a leader in the field and has grown our understanding of pediatric obesity and avenues for prevention. My current student, Autumn Hullings, is in the final stages of completing her dissertation investigating the molecular linkages between diet and cardiometabolic health. I am sure Autumn too will go on to do big things.

These are just a few of the many extraordinary women researchers who have been or are being launched here at UNC-Chapel Hill. They are shaping the future of science through their dedication, innovation, and commitment to impactful research. Happy Women’s History Month to all our amazing researchers, our enterprising students, and our staff members who support their endeavors.

Permalink: UNC Research Celebrates Women’s History Month

By , February 8, 2024

Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) are bringing incredible opportunities to almost every aspect of life. Carolina is already doing outstanding work with this burgeoning technology, including our deep well of expertise within the Department of Computer Science and at the Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI). Along with the growth of the UNC School of Data Science and Society (SDSS), our expertise and capabilities continue to foster more collaboration than ever before. As AI begins to transform society, we are working to ensure Carolina researchers lead in the use of AI and digital technologies.

Indeed, we have a wealth of research on our campus that leverages AI – too much to fit into a single blog! Thus, I will focus on our work in the health and clinical domains where collaborations and technological prowess in AI combine with expertise in health to make significant advancements in health science research and applied clinical care.

With recent funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, an interdisciplinary team of Carolina researchers is working to expand prenatal care access in low-resource settings like Zambia and rural North Carolina through low-cost, AI-assisted ultrasound devices. Jeffery Stringer, professor and division director of global women’s health in the UNC School of Medicine (SOM), and his team have created an AI model that accurately estimates fetal age from scans taken by untrained users on simple devices. This research will be foundational for developing comprehensive AI tools that will improve access and pregnancy care worldwide.

W.R. Kenan, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Biostatistics at the Gillings School of Global Public Health, Michael Kosorok works at the forefront of sophisticated methods in precision health and AI with applications designed to improve health care. His Precision Health and AI Research Lab develops new algorithms and statistical methodology for data-driven decision making and application across a wide variety of human health domains, assessing patient characteristics and treatment regimens rapidly. Kosorok has used his advanced precision health methods in collaboration with others across campus to address critical health issues like type I diabetes, cancer, osteoarthritis, and more.

K.H. Lee Distinguished Professor Alex Tropsha leads the Molecular Modeling Lab at the Eshelman School of Pharmacy. His lab works at the intersection of pharmaceutical development and data science to accelerate the discovery of novel drugs. Leveraging the power of AI, the team tests solutions for therapeutics for illnesses like Alzheimer’s, cancer, and viral diseases. He and his team also collaborate with the chemistry and applied physical sciences departments to support AI-accelerated discovery of solar energy materials

UNC School of Nursing Associate Professor Jessica Zegre-Hemsey uses data science methods to improve diagnostic accuracy in emergency cardiac diagnoses. Her work has shown that AI can determine the likelihood of time-sensitive conditions like acute coronary syndrome, resulting in quicker response and care in life-threatening situations.

The Biomedical Image Analysis Group in the Department of Computer Science within the College of Arts and Sciences focuses on the design of computational algorithms to extract quantitative measures from biomedical data, creating easier to understand diagnostics. Led by Professor Marc Niethammer, the group focuses on methods for statistical shape analysis, image segmentation, deformable image registration, and machine learning. Niethammer also provides faculty support to Carolina’s AI Project which addresses the utilization of AI and augmented/virtual reality through a philosophic lens.

Led by Corbin Jones, professor of biology within the College and genetics in SOM, the Creativity Hubs funded AIxB team is combining an AI approach with biological sciences to examine how genetic information becomes transcribed and is regulated at a chemical level – cracking codes of how DNA controls gene expression and ultimately cell functions without changing DNA sequence. This research can interpret the complexity of genetic codes and offer insight into regulatory mechanisms that lead to health and disease. This work has potential to reduce experimental time and eventually inform therapies for treatable DNA-based diseases.

There is also much expertise in SOM’s computational medicine department. For example, Oliver Smithies Investigator and Chair of Genetics Fernando Pardo-Manuel de Villena, leverages these tools to explore genetic diversity across several models to answer fundamental questions about genomics, systems genetics, and evolution to understand critical biological processes to improve health.

Last year, SDSS gained its first cohort of faculty members. Many of these new faces have joint appointments in departments outside of the school. Associate Professor Hsun-Ta Hsu, who you will hear more about soon in this month’s issue of Endeavors, is jointly appointed in the School of Social Work and analyzes the implication of using AI to address societal health issues, like homelessness.

RENCI Director Ashok Krishnamurthy, along with Karamarie Fecho and Sarah Tyndell, organized the inaugural Clinical and Environmental Health Data Workshop last May, which covered issues related to clinical informatics, biomedical data ecosystems, and cyberinfrastructure. The conference addressed silos that prevent organizations like the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences from integrating data that is crucial to improving health outcomes. This integrated data empowers researchers and officials to pinpoint environmental inequalities, delve into social health drivers, and tailor interventions for specific communities. This research equips policymakers to target aid, optimize resources, and ensure fairness in health care access.

Yet with all the promise of AI, there remain questions about its use (and potential misuse). It is critical that we use AI responsibly to assist discoveries and leverage it appropriately. Thankfully, Stan Ahalt, dean of SDSS, is leading the UNC Generative AI Committee and providing guidelines that help researchers navigate the challenges and opportunities of AI resources.

This blog only begins to scratch the surface. With literally dozens of experts in departments ranging from obstetrics to linguistics, the potential for AI to supercharge our research enterprise permeates throughout our campus. Even more opportunities are possible as we think about incorporating AI into research and education. I am excited for the collaborations and groundbreaking solutions that will yield as we consciously and efficiently integrate this tool into our efforts to improve lives and well-being.

Permalink: Leveraging AI to Power Health Sciences and Care at Carolina