CTSA team science award goes to 3 UGA researchers

UGA faculty members Katie Ehrlich, Brad Phillips and Ted Ross were honored with the Presidents’ Award of Distinction for Team Science from the Georgia Clinical and Translational Science Alliance at a virtual conference held March 5:

The three UGA faculty were recognized for their interdisciplinary collaboration in studying immune responses to influenza vaccination, each from a different disciplinary perspective.

Georgia CTSA is a National Institutes of Health-funded initiative that brings together UGA, Emory University, Georgia Tech and the Morehouse School of Medicine to facilitate clinical and translational research and help spread the health benefits of such research to all areas of the state.

...

“I believe our team’s efforts reflect the best of what team science can achieve,” said Ehrlich, assistant professor of psychology in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences. “Ted, Brad and I have overlapping and unique interests related to the annual flu study cohorts, and the result is an interdisciplinary study that is larger and more complex than what we could achieve had we pursued independent projects.”

The nature of the team project creates benefits that would be much harder to attain had each researcher worked in isolation. For example, given the wide interest in flu vaccines, annual cohorts can include as many as 300 participants. Social science studies, Ehrlich said, typically include far fewer volunteers, and the larger numbers lend greater validity to her conclusions.

Congratulations to Ehrlich and the team. The reality of next-level interdisciplinary collaboration is the back story to so many breakthroughs we are experiencing at present. Remarkable feats all, these partnerships are essential, outgrowths of fostered professionalism and professional relations. Very important that the people and collaborative spirt are being honored in this way.

Image: University of Georgia researchers Ted Ross, Katie Ehrlich and Brad Phillips.