News Release

SPIRE program brings minority undergraduates
to campus for tours, talks on careers in science

CHAPEL HILL — Dr. Joseph C. Dunbar, a leading diabetes researcher who has spent decades championing diversity within the sciences, will speak Friday (Oct. 28) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

"The Brain: Its Role in Obesity and Hypertension," is part of the sixth annual Distinguished Scholar Seminar Series, presented by fellows in the Seeding Postdoctoral Innovators in Research and Education (SPIRE) Postdoctoral Fellowship Program. Free to the public, the lecture will be at 4 p.m. in room 2001 of Kerr Hall.

SPIRE, a component of UNC’s Institute for Science Learning, is a three-year postdoctoral training program in the sciences that includes research, teaching and professional development. It places emphasis on the importance of innovative postdoctoral training and minority presence in the science fields.

Undergraduates from the state’s historically black colleges and universities also will visit the UNC campus on Friday to learn about opportunities for individuals interested in pursuing careers in science. Students from Elizabeth City State, Fayetteville State, Johnson C. Smith, North Carolina A&T, North Carolina Central, Shaw and Winston-Salem State universities, as well as students from UNC-Pembroke, will tour campus labs and attend information sessions and a panel discussion on research. Dunbar’s lecture concludes their day at Carolina.

"I was an undergraduate at Johnson C. Smith University and also one of Dr. Dunbar’s students in the Minority Biomedical Research Support Program at Wayne State University, so it’s personally rewarding for me to welcome Dr. Dunbar and the undergraduates from the state’s historically minority universities to Carolina," said Dr. Dinitra White, a SPIRE fellow.

Dunbar is a professor in and chairman of the department of physiology at Wayne State University in Detroit. He has contributed many years of service to organizations including the Minority Opportunities in Research division of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, the Minority Access to Research Careers review committee and the American Diabetes Association’s board of directors.

"We are very excited and honored to have Dr. Dunbar as our distinguished scholar speaker," said Dr. Leslie Lerea, SPIRE’s director. "His scientific expertise in the area of health disparities as well as his dedication and commitment to enhancing science education are both strongly aligned with the goals of the SPIRE program."

For more information on SPIRE, visit http://spire.isl.unc.edu.

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Institute for Science Learning contact: Claire Bury, (919) 843-5915 or bury@unc.edu
News Services contact: Deb Saine, (919) 962-8415 or deborah_saine@unc.edu