The first cohort of UMB, UMCP MPower Professors to continue health care innovation.

Photo: Left to right, top row; Deanna L. Kelly, Rao P. Gullapalli, Joseph Richardson Jr., Yihua Bruce Yu; left to right, bottom row, Donald K. Milton, Cheryl L. Knott, Christopher M. Jewell, and Luana Colloca

Improving drug safety. Tracking the transmission of airborne diseases. Mapping neighborhood health risks. Research in these three areas and five more in medicine and public health has made important strides through a program supported by the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) and the University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP).

The MPower Professorship was launched in 2021 to recognize, incentivize, and support collaboration among faculty at the two institutions. The inaugural cohort included eight faculty — four from each university — who each received $150,000 over three years to address some of the nation’s most pressing challenges, ones that demand the combined strengths of both universities.

UMB President Bruce E. Jarrell, MD, FACS, and UMCP President Darryll J. Pines, PhD, MS, have championed the professorship, one of several initiatives advanced through the University of Maryland Strategic Partnership: MPowering the State, as a powerful example of how collaborations across campuses can drive innovation and impact.

The MPower Professorship “not only celebrates faculty’s commitment to pursuing transformative ideas,” Jarrell said, “it also opens up new possibilities to amplify the impact of their work.”

Added Pines: “The MPower Professorship is a unique opportunity for higher education scholars and researchers to come together and take on the problems that need our collective resources, creativity, and dedication. They are a prime example of how we can work together to take on the grand challenges of our time and continue to foster the life-changing innovations that impact lives not just in Maryland, but across the country and world.”

With its fourth cohort, the professorship has recognized 27 scholars. Now that their three-year term has concluded, the first cohort of faculty reflected on their achievements and how their spirit of collaboration continues to shape the future of research.

Read more about the MPower professors