![\"CohenMyron\"](\"\/\/casdev.unc.edu\/collegearchive\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2015\/01\/CohenMyron.jpg\")
<\/a>Cohen, of Chapel Hill, grew up in Chicago and joined the Carolina faculty in 1980. He is the Yeargen-Bate Eminent Distinguished Professor of medicine, microbiology and immunology in the UNC School of Medicine, where he chairs the division of infectious disease; a professor of epidemiology at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health; and the associate vice chancellor for global health.<\/p>\nIn 2011, Science magazine credited Cohen and his researchers with the \u201cBreakthrough of the Year\u201d for clinical trials showing that treating HIV-1 with aggressive antiretroviral therapy reduced transmission to uninfected partners to almost zero. The results prompted the World Health Organization to change its treatment guidelines and raised hopes among medical researchers of one day vanquishing the deadly virus altogether.<\/p>\n
Over the decades of Cohen\u2019s research, UNC-Chapel Hill\u2019s infectious-disease group has achieved a top-10 ranking among AIDS programs. Cohen has led the UNC Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases since its founding in 2007, and his team\u2019s funding has grown to hundreds of millions of dollars to support trials in 10 countries. He has received a lifetime achievement award from the American Sexually Transmitted Diseases Association, the National Institutes of Health Merit Award, the North Carolina Award for Science and Carolina\u2019s O. Max Gardner Award, presented annually to a faculty member who \u201chas made the greatest contribution to the welfare of the human race\u201d in that academic year.<\/p>\n
A primary focus of Earp\u2019s research has been to end racial disparities in health care treatment and outcomes, such as in HIV\/AIDS and breast cancer. An innovator of the lay health adviser approach now used across the country, Earp founded the N.C. Breast Cancer Screening Program that got screening for more older black women in poor, rural counties in the state, enabling them to begin treatment sooner, like their white counterparts, and reduce their mortality rate. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the NIH have lauded her research approach as highly effective.<\/p>\n Earp also is a well-known mentor to hundreds of graduate students, helping launch their own research careers. Among her many awards for teaching, mentoring and research, she has received the National Cancer Institute RTIP designation, Carolina\u2019s McGavran Award for Excellence in Teaching, the Cecil G. Sheps Distinguished Investigator Award, the John E. Larsh Jr. Award for Mentorship and the Women\u2019s Leadership Council Mentoring Award.<\/p>\n<\/a>Earp, of Chapel Hill, who grew up in Great Neck, New York, on Long Island, is a professor and former chair of the department of health behavior at the Gillings School of Global Public Health, having joined the faculty in 1974. She also is on the faculty of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, the Sheps Health Services Research Center and the Odum Institute for Research in the Social Sciences.<\/p>\n