Interdisciplinary Excellence: Celebrate, Collaborate, Innovate

We’re celebrating the best in interdisciplinarity at NC State with the 2025 Interdisciplinary Excellence Event and Awards.

About the Event

The 2025 Interdisciplinary Excellence Event and Awards will celebrate interdisciplinary research, teaching and collaboration success at NC State, made possible through the hard work and dedication of faculty, staff and students across the university. Attendees can expect dynamic conversations surrounding the state of interdisciplinarity at the university; hear from a keynote speaker, Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Warwick Arden and other academic leaders; and celebrate the nominees and winners of the Interdisciplinary Teaching Excellence Awards.

Date and Time

Friday, May 9, from 8 a.m.-1 p.m.

Location

NC State’s Plant Sciences Building

Event Schedule

“Interdisciplinary Excellence: Celebrate, Collaborate, Innovate”
8-8:30 a.m.	Registration & Morning Refreshments
8:30-8:45 a.m.	Opening Remarks

8:45-9:30 a.m.	Keynote Address
9:30-10 a.m.	Provost's Fireside Chat with Keynote Speaker
	A dynamic conversation between the Provost and the Keynote Speaker, discussing: How institutions can support interdisciplinary initiatives. Navigating challenges in policy, funding, and faculty engagement. Strategies for institutionalizing interdisciplinary collaboration.
10-10:15 a.m.	Break
10:15-11:45 a.m.	Interdisciplinary Excellence Awards & Best Practices
	Award Ceremony: Recognizing outstanding interdisciplinary programs and faculty. Recipients share insights on their work and impact. Best Practices Showcase: A moderated discussion with award winners on: Strategies for collaboration across disciplines. Lessons learned and advice for scaling programs.
11:45 a.m.-1 p.m.	Lunch & Taskforce Report Presentation
	Presentation of the Taskforce Report on interdisciplinary education. Seed Fund Announcement
1-1:05 p.m.	Closing Remarks

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About the Keynote Speaker

Ben Nelson is the founder and CEO of Minerva Project, founder of Minerva University, and a visionary with a passion to reinvent higher education. Nelson started Minerva in 2011 with the goal of nurturing critical wisdom for the sake of the world through a systematic and evidence-based approach to learning. Over the past decade, Nelson has built Minerva University into the most selective, innovative (ranked No. 1 according to WURI rankings), and effective university in the U.S., and has developed a business – Minerva Project – to share Minerva’s unique approach with other like-minded institutions.

Prior to Minerva, Nelson spent more than 10 years at Snapfish, where he helped build the company from startup to the world’s largest personal publishing service, with over 42 million transactions across 22 countries, nearly five times greater than its closest competitor. Prior to joining Snapfish, Nelson was President and CEO of Community Ventures, a network of locally branded portals for American communities. Nelson’s passion for reforming undergraduate education was first sparked in college, where he created a blueprint for curricular reform in his first year of school. Nelson went on to become the chair of the Student Committee on Undergraduate Education, a pedagogical think tank at the University of Pennsylvania. Nelson holds a Bachelor of Science in economics from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.

Interdisciplinary Teaching Excellence Awards Nominations

We invite you to submit nominations for the Interdisciplinary Teaching Excellence Awards. The nomination deadline is Wednesday, April 9.

Submit a Nomination

The copper wolves at Wolf Plaza near the Free Expression tunnel. Photo by Becky Kirkland.

Questions?

For more information about the Interdisciplinary Excellence Event, please contact Provost’s Office Chief of Staff and Director of Projects and Planning Kelly Wick at kmwick@ncsu.edu. For more information about the 2025 Interdisciplinary Excellence Award, please contact Internal Faculty Awards Coordinator Sherry Bailey at sbbailey@ncsu.edu.