Advancing our academic reputation

The But for Ohio State Campaign helped the university improve its academic prowess through the creation of new opportunities for faculty.

Bringing inspired findings from a medical research environment into the hospital is a lot harder than you might think. Jessica Winter is on a mission to solve that. 

“Doing translational research, where you take a product from the lab into the clinic, is really difficult,” Winter said. “There's not a lot of funding for that.”

Winter came to Ohio State and received a donor-supported endowed professorship that enabled her to focus more closely on her work and freed up time to help aggressively pursue the translational research she found most impactful. She capitalized on the opportunity, earning an Ohio State Early Innovator Award in 2012 and the TechColumbus Innovator of the Year award in 2013.

She also launched Core Quantum Technologies which creates products could help researchers to significantly reduce costs and improve the efficiency of their research.  Through it all, she's remained cognizant of her own battle with cancer and the goal she established to help others with their cancer battles.

“[My diagnosis] changed my perspective, because I felt like I was given a unique opportunity to fight cancer in a way that most patients can't,” Winter said. “And that is to make things better for more people than just myself.”

Peace and stability

Being the recipient of the H.C. “Slip” Slider professorship has given Lisa Hall peace of mind and the opportunity to try out ideas before they are fully developed.

A non-tenured assistant professor in the William G. Lowrie Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Hall was awarded the professorship in 2012. This type of professorship for an untenured faculty is highly uncommon in higher education, and it's allowed Hall and her team to work on applying statistical mechanical theory and molecular dynamics simulations to investigate structural, thermodynamic and dynamic phenomena in soft materials.

“There are times when you have questions that are not yet ready to write up in grant proposals,” she says. “The funding from the Slider professorship lets me play with things and get plans started so decisions can be made on taking next steps and whether they are needed.”   

An outreach project at two Ohio State-based summer camps this year let students use computers and special monitors to view molecular simulations including polymers wiggling around on the screen. To give students a sense of control in moving through other molecules, Hall chose to use a joystick like those used in playing video games. 

“I knew it would be difficult explaining the purpose of the joystick purchase to the National Science Foundation,” she says of the NSF, which funds her Faculty Early Career Development award. “So it’s incredible to have a fund where we can test out ideas and then use these findings in our grant applications.”

The Slider professorship, awarded only to junior faculty, also gives Hall a safety net to make longer-term research plans. She is able to make decisions on hiring students for projects while awaiting final word on grant money coming through.

“The Slider support is there just in case, but I’m usually able to use that resource for other needs,” she says. “I use the money in my head to more easily commit to students. It gives me a feeling of comfort and stability in moving forward.”

Toward that end, Hall would like to receive tenure and teach at the university long-term. “I am really inspired by Ohio State students and the fact they are interested in solving problems, not just thinking about them,” she says.  

Learn about more ways that the campaign helped improve faculty and research enterprise at Ohio State.