University of Alabama-Birmingham AIDS Researchers Relocating to Emory University
Two top AIDS researchers from the University of Alabama-Birmingham are moving to Emory University to work under a program funded largely by the Georgia lottery, the Birmingham News reports. According to Richard Marchase, UAB's senior associate dean for research, UAB's Center for AIDS Research is among the country's top two or three HIV/AIDS research centers. UAB CFAR Director Eric Hunter and Dr. Susan Allen, director of the Zambia-UAB HIV Research Project, are expected to leave UAB on Aug. 1, taking "their scientific reputations, millions of dollars in federal grants, key staff and control" of the Zambia project, according to the News. Hunter, who is married to Allen, was offered a package of incentives, including a permanently endowed $1.5 million professorship and a new $1 million research lab at Emory. The deal largely is funded by the Georgia Research Alliance, which is a partnership among six Georgia universities, the state government and the business community. Hunter no longer will direct an AIDS research center and instead will focus on his own scientific research, according to the News. UAB officials were scheduled to meet on Wednesday to discuss the search for a successor to Hunter (Parks, Birmingham News, 3/30).
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