Christine Payne, Mary Milus Yoh and Harold L. Yoh, Jr. Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science. Payne came to Duke from Georgia Tech in 2018. Her research focuses on cellular interactions with nanoparticles, which increasingly are being used as sources for heating in cancer therapy or as drug delivery vehicles. She has already made an impact on teaching through her new course on the "Materials Science of Science Fiction"

In 2016, Storici was named one of 84 people from the U.S.—and the first and, thus far, only Georgia Tech researcher—to receive the first-time $1.5 million Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Faculty Scholarship, geared toward “early career scientists who have great potential to make unique contributions to their field.” It was just another first for Storici, who is widely known in the scientific community as a trailblazer in the new field of RNA-mediated genome stability. Her lab research focuses on things like RNA-driven DNA repair and modification, the function of ribonucleotides embedded in DNA, the mechanisms of genome stability, and the targeting, correction and editing of genes. Storici’s work led to the discovery of a new method of DNA repair using the transcript RNA, which are abundant in cells, as a template. The result might have a significant impact on genetic stability.