The problem solver

Andy Johns has held many important titles at Carolina since he graduated in 1998 and went to work as a computer consultant for Administrative Information Services (AIS) in the red brick building at 440 West Franklin St.

But wherever he has gone, one unofficial label has always stuck: Problem solver.

And a problem solver in the Office of Sponsored Research (OSR) was exactly what Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost James W. Dean Jr. and then-Vice Chancellor for Research Barbara Entwisle were looking for last fall when they asked Johns to serve as its interim director.

When Johns arrived at the new post on Sept. 28, the office was in trouble. Within a span of the previous six months, most of the senior leadership had departed. And many positions in the office were vacant, Johns said.

The lack of manpower put yet more pressure on the beleaguered remaining employees, who were under siege from all sides about the work the OSR was either not getting done – or not getting done correctly.

OSR assists faculty and staff in all aspects of research administration – from monitoring institutional compliance with terms of grants or contracts to handling billing and financial reporting.

As senior associate vice chancellor of research, Johns understood better than anyone how vital the OSR is to sustain and support the University’s burgeoning research enterprise, which by fall of 2015 had climbed to eighth nationally among public and private universities in overall research and development (R&D) and sixth nationally in federal R&D spending.

Read more about Andy Johns in the Gazette.

This story is one of a series featuring 2016 winners of the C. Knox Massey Distinguished Service Award. The late C. Knox Massey of Durham created the awards in 1980 to recognize “unusual, meritorious or superior contributions” by University employees. The award is supported by the Massey-Weatherspoon Fund created by three generations of Massey and Weatherspoon families.