Please join us in congratulating our very own Prof. Blanton Tolbert on being selected as the Inaugural Vice President of Science Leadership and Culture at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). Prof. Tolbert is a world-renowned biophysical chemist, and his research expertise includes understanding the molecular mechanisms of RNA viruses. More recently, he has collaborated with colleagues at Duke and Rutgers to develop compounds that have the potential to delay or even stop the ability of SARS-CoV-2 to replicate. We are very fortunate that Prof. Tolbert plans to maintain his research laboratory in the Department in addition to his HHMI duties.