Adam Reitzel, CIPHER Director, Selected Faculty Fellow Of Grant Writing
In a significant development for the academic community at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Professor Adam Reitzel, renowned in the field of Biological Sciences and co-director of the CIPHER Center, has been appointed as the Faculty Fellow of Grant Writing at the recently inaugurated UNC Charlotte Graduate & Postdoctoral Writing Center (GPWC).
Assuming his role as a Faculty Fellow, Reitzel, equipped with his extensive scholarly writing expertise, is set to contribute to the cultivation of grant writing skills among postdoctoral fellows and graduate students pursuing doctoral and research master’s degrees. His primary focus will revolve around designing and implementing writing curricula, aiming to equip cohorts of postdoctoral fellows and graduate students with the necessary tools to seek and secure grants in both STEM and social science domains.
Expressing enthusiasm for this collaboration, Graduate School Interim Dean Pinku Mukherjee remarked, “We are excited and proud to have Dr. Reitzel join the effort to build the University’s writing talent. He brings with him a reputation for not only achieving ground-breaking discoveries but for communicating those achievements with impact.”
Reitzel embarked on his academic journey at Charlotte in 2012, focusing on understanding how marine organisms respond to environmental changes. Over the years, he has authored more than 60 peer-reviewed journal publications and secured funding from some of the nation’s most prominent research institutions. The Reitzel Lab has garnered support from esteemed organizations such as the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the Human Frontier Science Program. Additionally, students under Reitzel’s mentorship have earned fellowships from the National Science Foundation and research grants from various state, national, and international entities.
Recognized for his commitment to collaborative research, Reitzel brings together researchers from diverse disciplines to address complex challenges, spanning from laboratory investigations to fieldwork and computational studies.
Dr. Reitzel emphasized the importance of writing skills in academic training, stating, “Learning strategies to write well is the most important and impactful skill a trainee can learn during their university training. Writing is a lifelong skill that a person will reuse throughout their career no matter where they go.”
The GPWC, a collaborative initiative involving the Graduate School, the Division of Research, and the Writing Resources Center, aims to provide comprehensive writing support to graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. Services offered by the center include writing groups, workshops, retreats, and dissertation coaching. Dr. Lisa Russell-Pinson, Associate Teaching Professor of Writing in the Graduate School, and Dr. Katie Garahan, Director of the WRC, jointly oversee the center and also co-supervise the newly established Doctoral Writing Fellows Program, which trains doctoral students and candidates to contribute to the GPWC’s initiatives.