Last Updated on June 29, 2025 5:46 pm
Friday, June 27, 2025
This weekend, the university will celebrate a tradition with more than four decades of history on our campus: The opening night of An Appalachian Summer.
This year’s season opener is singer-songwriter Amos Lee, performing on the same stage as countless others before him have — and like them, sharing the power and excitement of live performance in the stunning Schaefer Center. His performance will carry forward a legacy of filling summer evenings in the High Country with the sights and sounds of artists — from those who are just being discovered to those who are legendary.
I hope you will join us this summer for one or many of the remarkable events on the Appalachian Summer 2025 schedule.
Yesterday, I joined a group of faculty, staff, donors and parents for a send-off of App State’s solar vehicle team, Team Sunergy. The team is bound for the National Corvette Museum Motorsports Park in Bowling Green, Kentucky, to compete against an international field of more than 30 competitors in the Electrek Formula Sun Grand Prix collegiate solar car competition. The annual competition for solar vehicles includes a rigorous set of safety and design inspections, followed by three days of racing on a closed-course track. Since 2016, Team Sunergy has earned a top three podium finish in either the Formula Sun Grand Prix or its sister competition, the cross-country American Solar Challenge road race. I’ll be following the team closely during the competition, set to take place June 30–July 5.
This incredibly motivated and energized team of about 50 students — 75% of whom are in their first year at App State — serves as a model for student-driven innovation, applied research and industry engagement. The team is designing and building their third-generation solar car, a multi-occupant vehicle that will weigh less than 1,000 pounds and travel at highway speeds. Students are designing and fabricating the materials — from the aeroshell to the suspension, as well as engineering the electrical infrastructure that will power the car, operationalizing the timing and coordination needed for quick pit repairs, and promoting their incredible efforts. In doing so, they are gaining experience that rivals — and routinely outperforms — some of the best engineering programs in the world. Combined with their skill sets and unparalleled grit and determination, this experience is ensuring they have what it takes to succeed in careers that span a wide variety of industries upon graduation.
This is just one applied research opportunity we’re embracing, and with the vast potential ahead — powered by our new R2 status — I’ve elevated the role of Dr. Christine Ogilvie Hendren to Vice Chancellor of Research and Innovation.
In this role, Christine will lead the university’s Office of Research and Innovation and broader research and innovation enterprise, which include the following areas:
- Sponsored Programs
- Grants Resources and Services
- Research Protections
- Research Design and Analysis
- College Access Partnerships and its programs
- Office of Student Research
- Research Institute for Environment, Energy and Economics, including its three research centers and the solar vehicle team
- Small Business Technology Development Center
- Blackburn Vannoy Estate and Farm
Christine will also continue to lead the advancement of the university’s research and creative activities strategy, as well as strategic innovation functions that include external relations and commercialization for the university’s research and creative activities enterprise.
Christine came to App State in 2020, after a national search, as director of the Research Institute for Environment, Energy and Economics (RIEEE). In 2024, she was named vice Provost of Research and Innovation. She also holds the rank of professor in the Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences.
With a background in engineering, risk assessment and the integration of knowledge across various disciplines, she brings significant experience in securing external funding, leading large, multi-institutional research projects, and working with corporate entities to commercialize intellectual property.
Before joining App State, Christine was executive director of Duke University’s Center for the Environmental Implications of NanoTechnology and a faculty member in the university’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. She also served as faculty co-lead for the Team Science Core in Duke’s Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute.
Christine holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from Texas A&M University, a professional science master’s degree in environmental analysis and decision making from Rice University and a Ph.D. in civil and environmental engineering from Duke University.
I look forward to working more closely with Christine as she leads the elevation of the university’s research/creative activities and innovation enterprise.
As we head into the first week of July, the university will be closed on July 4 in observance of Independence Day. I hope this offers each of you an opportunity for celebration and a break from your regular routine, wherever that might take you.
Heather Norris
Chancellor
