A Full Return to Our Campuses

The start of an academic year always brings a surge of excitement, the air crackling with anticipation, renewed purpose, and the promise of learning, discovery, and new experiences.

Emory President Gregory L. Fenves

This year, it also brings a powerful sense of momentum, as Emory prepares for the full return of students, faculty, and staff to our Atlanta and Oxford College campuses after more than a year spent educating students both in person and remotely amid a devastating global pandemic.

While the Delta variant is still a reality, I’m struck by the tremendous collaboration that allows us to begin a new academic year back on campus. It required a focus on health built on the expertise of Emory medical and public health experts, who identified new testing and safety protocols, and researchers who helped create groundbreaking new COVID-19 vaccines and treatments. And notably, it took the talents of our incredibly resilient students and faculty, who swiftly pivoted to new learning models, and Emory staff committed to keeping the entire enterprise moving forward.

It’s been a remarkable effort and a reminder of the power of community. And it has positioned us to continue doing what Emory does best: creating and sharing knowledge and advancing research and innovation in service of the global good.

This issue of Emory Magazine illustrates how collaboration strengthens our academic mission. You’ll learn how Emory’s longstanding partnership with the Georgia Institute of Technology has combined complementary strengths to forge exciting new breakthroughs in education and research. Together, we are training the next generation of educators and innovators to address some of humanity’s most pressing challenges.

One of our great success stories is the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering. Now celebrating its twentieth year under the Coulter name, this unique partnership has brought together students, faculty, and researchers at the intersection of medicine and engineering, emerging as one of the nation’s top three ranked biomedical engineering programs.

While Emory’s reputation has always been grounded exceptional academics, the university has also helped shape outstanding athletes. Perhaps you watched this summer as Emory alumnus Andrew Wilson 17C became the first Division-III swimmer to compete for Team USA in the Tokyo Olympics — helping secure a gold medal in the men’s 4x100 medley relay. Back on campus, Emory Athletics Director Keiko Price is building on our athletic legacy. A former NCAA Division I swim champion, Price joined Emory last winter determined to amplify the successes of our student-athletes, as the university returns to a full slate of athletic competition.

Navigating this pandemic has presented untold hardships. But it has also demonstrated the transformative power of the Emory community, while emphasizing the advantages of a full residential college experience. Neither of those lessons will ever be taken for granted.

Together, we face the new academic year wiser, stronger, and unified by hope and optimism for the future.

And I can’t wait to see where it will take us.

Gregory L. Fenves
President
Emory University