Goal 2: Collaborative Research and Scholarship
NC State researchers and scholars lead the way in fulfilling our mission to create and apply knowledge. We collaborate across disciplines — and state-of-the-art facilities — to turn ideas into world-changing realities.
Outstanding Faculty
We invest in our faculty, recruiting the best and the brightest minds – and ensure that we take deliberate steps to reward and retain them. We’ve continued to increase the number of endowed named professorships in strategic areas of focus, including several through the generous support of James and Ann Goodnight, such as the Goodnight Distinguished Professorship in Early Literacy and the Goodnight Distinguished University Professor in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. We’ve also established the Goodnight Early Career Innovators Award Program to recognize and reward early career tenure-track faculty with outstanding promise for scholarly achievement and impact in STEM or STEM education.
Our faculty have attracted statewide, national and international attention for their scholarship and service to their respective fields. Recently, Craig Yencho, William Neal Reynolds Distinguished Professor of Horticultural Science and program leader for NC State’s sweet potato breeding and genetics programs, received the University of North Carolina System’s 2024 Oliver Max Gardner Award. Professor B. Jayant Baliga was awarded the 2024 Millennium Technology Prize — the most prestigious international award recognizing technological innovation — for his work on the invention, development and commercialization of insulated gate bipolar transistors. In 2022, Hollylynne Lee, Distinguished Professor of Mathematics and Statistics Education, was named the recipient of Baylor University’s Robert Foster Cherry Award for Great Teaching.
Supporting Early Career Faculty Excellence in STEM and STEM Education
Winning Collaborations
Working across disciplines is a hallmark of scholarship at NC State. We established the Office of University Interdisciplinary Programs to strengthen and support a campus culture of interdisciplinarity and collaborations that crosses academic boundaries. Our three academies — Data Science and AI, Genetics and Genomics, and Global One Health — facilitate connections in key areas of interdisciplinary strength and are uniquely designed to touch all three pillars of the university’s land-grant mission: excellent teaching, research and engagement.
Collaborative scholarship also brings national research centers to NC State. This includes the Commercial Leap Ahead for Wide Bandgap Semiconductors (CLAWS) Hub, where regional experts will focus on increasing domestic semiconductor production and employment; and the Bezos Center for Sustainable Protein, which will work to create a biomanufacturing hub for dietary proteins that are environmentally friendly, healthy, accessible and affordable.
$633 million
Amount of research expenditures at NC State in FY22-23, with federal agencies being the largest sponsors for research expenditures in 2023. NC State is 6th in research expenditures among all public universities without medical schools.
World-Class Facilities
We strive to provide our faculty, staff and students with collaborative spaces that foster interdisciplinary opportunities. Woodson Hall, home of the Integrative Sciences Initiative, will showcase our culture of integrated education and research, serve as a hub for self-driving labs, and transform the landscape of experimental sciences. The unique features of the Plant Sciences Building — including eleven rooftop greenhouses designed to facilitate the development of profitable new crops and crop varieties — facilitates the team-based science required to solve the world’s most pressing agricultural challenges.
Heart of Campus
Woodson Hall will be located on the former Harrelson Hall site adjacent to the Brickyard.
153,000 Square Feet
Woodson Hall will include a mix of teaching, research, collaboration, amenity and support space.
$180 Million Investment
$90 million of the Woodson Hall project cost has been provided by the state and $90 million will be funded by the university.
