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Yes. You can go home again.
The appointment of Tony G. Waldrop, a Morehead Scholar and track star at the
University in the 1970s, has received approval by the UNC Board of Governors
Personnel and Tenure Committee, acting on delegation of the full board, to lead
research efforts at his alma mater.
Waldrop, 49, a Columbus native with three Carolina degrees, will begin work
Aug. 1 as vice chancellor for research and graduate studies.
Reporting to Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Robert Shelton, Waldrop will
work to enhance the University's standing as a top research university. The
title elevates responsibility for the University's $400 million-a-year research
enterprise to the level of vice chancellor.
Waldrop, now a professor of molecular and integrative physiology and vice
chancellor for research at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, also
has been an interim graduate school dean there. He has a long track record of
research and teaching in cardiorespiratory physiology and neurobiology at
Illinois, Carolina and the University of Texas.
"Carolina is more than fortunate to bring on board a scholar, researcher and
administrator as outstanding as Dr. Waldrop," Shelton said. "At Illinois, he
has proven his talent in the same role he will take on here: ensuring that UNC
maintains the brain power, funding, buildings and innovative contracts needed
to spawn discoveries that make our world a better place and improve people's
lives."
Waldrop's research has been supported by agencies including the National
Institutes of Health and the American Heart Association (AHA). AHA selected him
as an established investigator. At Illinois, Waldrop is a University Scholar,
the premier recognition accorded to faculty by their colleagues. His interest
areas are hypertension, developmental neurobiology and the effects of hypoxia
(deficiency of oxygen reaching body tissue) on brainstem neurons.
Waldrop's move brings to mind the book You Can't Go Home Again by
another distinguished University alumnus and western North Carolinian, Thomas
Wolfe, and it highlights the value of Morehead Awards. The full four-year
scholarships bring Carolina some of the most talented students nationwide in
academics, physical vigor and leadership. Now, a beneficiary will return to
help lead Carolina.
"I very much like my job at Illinois," Waldrop said in a phone interview. "The
only thing that could persuade me to move was the opportunity to work at an
institution of as high or higher quality as the one where I am now ... And
Carolina is home."
Waldrop met his wife, Chapel Hill native Julee Briscoe Waldrop, at Carolina.
She also ran track, and she earned a bachelor's degree in health and physical
education in 1981. Her father is Vic Briscoe, a University professor emeritus
of physics.
Recently, Julee Waldrop accepted a job as a clinical assistant professor in the
School of Nursing. The couple has two sons, Cabe, 16, and Dallas, 13.
Waldrop is a member of the N.C. Sports Hall of Fame. In 1974, he was named ACC
Athlete of the Year and won the Patterson Medal, Carolina's highest athletic
award, for athletic ability, sportsmanship, morals, leadership and general
conduct. While at Carolina, he ran an unprecedented 11 consecutive sub-four
minute miles in competitive races and set the then-indoor world record of 3
minutes, 55 seconds.
He won the 1973 indoor 1,000-yard run and the 1974 indoor mile NCAA
championships, six Atlantic Coast Conference tiles and a gold medal in the
1,500 meters at the 1975 Pan American Games.
Despite those feats, "the thing about UNC that I'm most proud of is the
Morehead Scholarship," he said. "It meant that I could come to Carolina. My
family in western North Carolina couldn't have afforded to send me. I'm very
proud to be a graduate of Carolina."
Attractions of the job at Carolina include major research initiatives in genome
sciences, he said, and consideration of including research facilities in future
development of the University's Horace Williams tract. At Illinois, he steered
efforts to develop the new University of Illinois Research Park.
Waldrop earned a bachelor of arts in political science in 1974, graduating as a
Top Five NCAA Student Athlete. He completed a master of arts in physical
education in 1980 and a doctorate in physiology in 1981. He earned a 1975 NCAA
postgraduate scholarship.
As a graduate student, Waldrop taught physiology for physical education
students, designed and directed a physiology lab for dental students and taught
cardiovascular and respiratory physiology to medical and pharmacy students.
He went to the Harry S. Moss Heart Center at the University of Texas
Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas for postdoctoral training. He was a
research fellow there from 1982-86, and he taught respiration and physiology
for medical and health science students.
In 1986, he joined the faculty at Illinois, where he has taught undergraduate,
graduate and medical students.
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