We are here tonight to celebrate our outstanding PAIR teams, who are taking Auburn research to new heights in critical areas like health sciences, additive manufacturing and the environment.

Academic research is dear to my heart. As you probably know, I have a strong background in research. I began my career as bench scientist and then oversaw agricultural and life sciences research at NC State.  Later, I oversaw research for the UNC system.

Because of my background, I have a true passion for what you do. And I’m committed to continuing to find innovative ways to provide the support and resources you need. We share the goal of putting Auburn on the map as a go-to for real-world solutions.

All of you here tonight — our PAIR teams — you play a key role in elevating Auburn’s research profile.

We created the PAIR initiative to tap into the tremendous talent that’s here at Auburn, to attract other top-tier researchers to our great university and to help you secure new, external funding that will help transform your ideas into real-world, practical solutions.

We received a tremendous response when we put out the call for this initiative — 101 proposals were submitted.

Narrowing that field down to just 11 projects was a challenge, for sure, but I’m confident that we have an exceptionally strong selection of collaborative, multidisciplinary teams, and you’ll work together to inspire, innovate and transform our great state and beyond through your groundbreaking research. 

We made this $5 million investment because we realize your potential to transform this university. We have the goal of elevating Auburn to Carnegie Research One classification, and I am pleased to report that, partly due to your efforts, we are well on our way to achieving this milestone. In fact, members of our additive manufacturing team funded through PAIR were awarded a prestigious NIST grant just last week.

It is your research that will help us maintain our momentum, as you focus your efforts on solving some of the major challenges facing our world.

I am confident that the teams represented here tonight will achieve tremendous things, and I look forward to seeing your results.

And I’ll end with this — I cannot stress enough how important your work is to our university. You are building a foundation for not just your meaningful research, but a foundation for the discoveries of those who will come after you, those who will build upon and advance what you’ve done.

We are committed to ensuring we have the resources and infrastructure you need to excel, and we are committed to recognizing and rewarding the best of the best.

I am truly grateful for all you do to enhance Auburn’s reputation, and, more importantly, to benefit our society.

And now, we will highlight the work of each team, and here to help us do that is our Interim Vice President for Research Dr. Jennifer Kerpelman.