Jessica Lin, MD, an associate professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases has been selected for the new RTI International class of university scholars.
The RTI University Scholars Program supports senior academics, typically on sabbatical, to spend time collaborating with RTI researchers. The program is designed to drive growth, foster collaboration, build scientific stature and develop opportunities for externally funded joint projects. Since 2014, RTI has appointed 43 distinguished academic researchers from the University of North Carolina System’s 16 universities and from Duke University to the RTI University Scholars Program.
Dr. Jessica Lin will study human mobility and its impact on the elimination of malaria in Zanzibar.
“This program creates longstanding connections and collaboration between academics and RTI experts, providing opportunities for continued joint research,” said Katie Bowler Young, operations director and interim leader, University Collaborations. “We are excited to welcome this year’s cohort of talented university scholars.”
The RTI University Scholars Program is committed to hosting faculty who center equity in their research – consistent with RTI and the Transformative Research Unit for Equity’s approach to rethinking traditional research practices in order to achieve equitable and transformational outcomes.
The program will also support Jigna M. Dharod, PhD, at the University of North Carolina Greensboro and Liping Feng, MD, and Toyosi Onwuemene, MD, at Duke University.
Their projects relate to food insecurity and infant feeding practices and its impact on early childhood growth and development, the effect of perinatal exposure to PFAS on neurodevelopmental behavioral and intellectual disorders in children, and the development of early identification methods in patients with pre-acute immune thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP).