Ross Boyce, MD, MSc, assistant professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases and Department of Epidemiology, has been selected as one of the recipients of the Jefferson-Pilot Fellowships in Academic Medicine. This award is given to exceptional UNC School of Medicine (SOM) junior faculty.
“I am honored to receive this award,” said Dr. Boyce. “I know there are many talented and equally deserving junior faculty in my division alone, so it’s humbling to consider that I was selected from among individuals across the School of Medicine.”
Dr. Boyce graduated Magna Cum Laude from Davidson College with Honors in Chemistry. Upon returning from active duty in the U.S. Army, where he completed two deployments to Iraq and was awarded three Bronze Star Medals, Dr. Boyce attended medical school at the University of North Carolina. He received a Masters in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. His research focuses on vector-borne (i.e., transmitted by insects) diseases, including malaria in rural Uganda and tick-borne diseases in North Carolina.
In Uganda, Dr. Boyce is the principal investigator on studies funded by the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, among others. His current projects include a clinical trial of insecticide-treated baby-wraps to prevent malaria in children.
Locally, Dr. Boyce leads a multi-disciplinary research collaboration, the Vector-Borne Disease Epidemiology, Ecology, and Response (VEER) Hub, focused on issues of tick- and mosquito-borne diseases endemic to North Carolina. The collaboration recently received funding as one of the five regional Centers of Excellence in Vector-Borne Disease supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The Jefferson Pilot Fellows receive a monetary award to support the exploration of new ideas, new ways of teaching students, treating patients or investigating biological problems that may not be available from other granting agencies. As a recipient Dr. Boyce will give a talk on Oct. 11 as part of UNC Research Week.
