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Ethnobotanist and GDBBS Faculty Member Named CNN 'Champion for Change'

Cassandra Quave, the Thomas J. Lawley, MD Professor of Dermatology, has been named one of CNN's 'Champions for Change' for 2024. The network calls their recipients "pioneers who are driving us toward a brighter future and changing the world."

In her interview with CNN, Quave says that "over a million people die every year due to untreatable infections. So I've dedicated my life to searching for new medicines from nature to combat the worst of these drug-resistant infections."

In addition to her appointment in Emory's dermatology department, Quave is the curator of the herbarium and assistant dean of Emory School of Medicine's research cores. She is also a faculty member in the MMG and MSP programs.

To watch the CNN primetime special featuring Quave, please visit this webpage


Emory ranked among the top 10 green colleges in the world

Adding to other recent accolades, Emory University was included among the 10 greenest universities in the world according to a new article from Study International — one of only two universities in the U.S. to receive this recognition. This ranking is one of several acknowledgments of Emory’s institutional leadership in sustainability, including being among the Sierra Club’s 2021 “Cool Schools” and receiving a gold rating from the internationally recognized Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System (STARS) for more than a decade.

Emory is recognized for the announcement of its 20-year partnership with Cherry Street Solar, which will create 5.5 megawatts of solar generation across campus; its WaterHub system, which reduces non-potable water usage on campus by 40% annually and supports hands-on learning and research opportunities in the environmental sciences and engineering; and for its extensive and varied campus engagement efforts. 

Emory’s integration of operational sustainability with academic innovation has built its reputation as a world-class institution of higher education preparing a new generation of environmentally minded leaders.

Community members are invited to contribute to the 2025-2036 Sustainability Vision and Strategic Plan and offer input on how Emory moves forward.


Update: Emory’s graduate, professional schools ranked among best in nation by U.S. News

Editor’s note: This article was updated July 23 to reflect medical school rankings released by U.S. News & World Report.

Emory University’s graduate and professional schools and programs continue to be ranked among the best in the country, according to U.S. News & World Report’s 2024 Best Graduate Schools, which was released April 9.

The annual list uses data, surveys and other information to rank programs in schools of nursing, public health, business, law and other areas. The publication has delayed releasing rankings for medical schools, engineering schools and clinical psychology programs because of concerns with the data.

Here are the Emory schools included in this year’s national rankings:

The Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing master’s program ranks 1st in the nation. The school’s doctor of nursing practice program is 6th.

The Rollins School of Public Health ranks 3rd in the nation. In the category of public health programs, U.S. News issued rankings for several master’s programs: biostatistics (5th), environmental health science (3rd), epidemiology (4th), health policy and management (8th) and social behavior (3rd). 

Emory’s School of Medicine was ranked in Tier 1 for research-oriented medical schools, a group that includes the top schools in the nation. US News introduced group rankings for medical schools this year instead of assigning specific numbers for each institution. The publication did rank Emory 15th for most diverse medical schools and the doctor of physical therapy program was listed as 4th in the country.

Goizueta Business School’s full-time MBA program ranks 18th. The Executive MBA program is 13th and the part-time program is 20th.

The School of Law ranks 42nd in the nation. Multiple programs within the school also received rankings including business/corporate law (22nd), constitutional law (25th), contracts/commercial law (21st) and health care law (21st).

The Laney Graduate School awards all PhDs at Emory in partnership with faculty located in various schools and departments across the university. Among doctoral science programs, computer science is 64th.

In U.S. News’ rankings of nursing master’s programs, Emory’s nurse practitioner, adult/gerontology, primary care is 3rd ; nurse practitioner, adult/gerontology, acute care is 4th; and family nurse practitioner program is 4th.

In rankings of Emory’s doctor of nursing practice programs, adult gerontology/acute care is 4th; adult gerontology/primary care is 3rd; family practice 5th; and nurse administration management 6th.

Each school may have additional information about rankings issued to specific programs. Not all graduate and professional programs are ranked annually.


Emory ranks among the top recipients of NIH support

Emory University continues to be one of the largest recipients of research funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), according to an independent ranking of peer institutions.

Each year, the Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research (BRIMR) publishes a ranking of U.S. academic institutions and health care systems based on the research funding they received from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) the prior year. 

In 2023, Emory received more than $485 million and is amongst the top 20 in the nation overall for institutional funding from the NIH.

“NIH support across the health sciences remains critical to our faculty and staff conducting high impact research that is contributing to scientific breakthroughs and improving the lives of populations around the world,” says David Stephens, MD, vice president for research at Emory’s Woodruff Health Sciences Center. “The investment of federal dollars will continue to support our mission as a leading research university.”

Emory’s individual schools all figured in the top 20 in their categories, with two in the top 5.

  • School of Medicine: 17th in the nation
  • School of Nursing: 5th in the nation
  • School of Public Health: 5th in the nation

At the department level, Emory School of Medicine has several departments in the top 20, including five in the top 10:

  • Biomedical Engineering (6)
  • Neurology (9)
  • Pathology Medicine (5)
  • Pediatrics (5)
  • Physical Medicine (10)

In addition, Winship Cancer Institute scientists contribute significantly to the NIH research funding totals, and the National Primate Research Center has one of the largest research funding bases of the nation’s seven NIH-supported national primate research centers.


GDBBS faculty recognized among world's most influential researchers

Three GDBBS faculty members were recently recognized as part of an elite group of the world’s most influential scientists by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI), a scientific analysis service. ISI, a division of Clarivate, uses the designation “Highly Cited Researchers” to describe scholars who produce high levels of research that also has a strong influence on their colleagues.

These faculty members are three out of the nine Emory researchers who are part of a group of Highly Cited Researchers from more than 1,300 institutions in 67 nations and regions. Selections were made by ISI’s bibliometrics experts, chosen through a process that includes the number of times their work is cited in the Science Citation Index and the Social Sciences Citation Index.

They are:

  • Rafi Ahmed, PhD, professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology and director of the Emory Vaccine Center, is a world-renowned immunologist whose work during the past decade has been highly influential in shaping our current understanding of how the germ-fighting white blood cells called T cells differentiate into the more specialized memory T cells that remain in the body after infection has been conquered. He is also a faculty member in the IMP and MMG programs.
  • Andrew H. Miller, MD, is the William P. Timmie Professor and Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Emory University School of Medicine, as well as head of the Emory Behavioral Immunology Program. Miller is an internationally recognized expert in interactions between the brain and immune system as they relate to behavior and health, including depression. His research focuses on the mechanisms by which the signaling proteins called cytokines cause depression in humans. He is also a NS faculty member.
  • Mehul S. Suthar, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Pediatrics, as well as at the Emory Vaccine Center, is currently applying an innovative systems biology approach to understand the complex and dynamic signaling networks that control innate immunity, the body’s multiple barriers designed to suppress or slow down viral infections. He uses a combination of high-throughput technology, computational analysis and pathway-specific modeling to reveal tissue and cell-specific gene regulatory signaling networks and antiviral effector genes that control virus infection and regulate innate antiviral immunity. He is also a faculty member in the IMP and MMG programs.

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