Research Excellence on Display

NC State faculty, staff and students work across disciplines to make research tangible to a wide audience. Their efforts are showcased in many ways, most recently through the Chancellor’s Innovation Fund and the Envisioning Research contest.

Chancellor’s Innovation Fund

The Chancellor’s Innovation Fund (CIF) was established in 2010 with a goal of supporting the commercial potential of intellectual property of NC State faculty. Each year, the CIF awards up to $75,000 to faculty for short-term commercially-focused research projects. This year’s winners are:

• Stefano Menegatti, assistant professor, chemical and biomolecular engineering, and Ruben Carbonell, Frank Hawkins Kenan Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering – PepMix
• Gary Cartwright, director, and Carl Hollifield, associate director, Dairy Enterprise System, – converting coffee beans into a direct food additive
• Pedro Vergara, Ph.D. student, and Leda Lunardi, professor, electrical and computer engineering – technology that creates sharper, more vibrant screen displays that use less power
• Michael Sano, assistant professor, biomedical engineering – potential alternative to chemotherapy and radiation treatment for inoperable tumors
• Jorge Piedrahita, Randall B. Terry Jr. Distinguished Professor of Translational Medicine and director, Comparative Medicine Institute, and Kathryn Polkoff, Ph.D. student – pig model for safer, more cost-effective clinical trials and eventual FDA approval for gene-editing therapies
• Rodolphe Barrangou, Todd R. Klaenhammer Distinguished Professor in Probiotics Research, and Jack Wang, director, Forest Biotech Group – CRISPR-based delivery system to edit tree stem cells without using added DNA

Learn more about how the CIF helps turn discoveries made at the university into market-ready products and solutions.

Envisioning Research

Envisioning Research, NC State’s annual research image project, gathers submissions from undergraduate and graduate students, postdocs, faculty and staff to highlight the beauty inherent in research, along with its impact on the university and world. NC State’s Office of Research and Innovation, the Graduate School, the NC State University Libraries, and University Communications and Marketing work together to conduct the contest.Nearly 25 first place, runners up and honorable mentions were given in four categories: Graphics and Data Visualization, Microscopy, Photography, and Video and Interactive. Take a look at this year’s Envisioning Research winners, and perhaps gain some research inspiration of your own.

*Original articles published by the Office of Research and Innovation and Matt Shipman, University Communications, respectively.