Het Talks: Marissa Hall and Kathryn Leech

Enjoy presentations by this year’s recipients of the Phillip and Ruth Hettleman Prizes for Scholarly Achievement. The talks will provide an engaging look into these distinguished early career scholars’ work. The late Phillip Hettleman, a member of the Carolina class of 1921, and his wife Ruth established their prestigious named award in 1986 to recognize the achievements of outstanding junior faculty.

Check out all of the Hettleman Winner’s Presentations throughout the week:

• Het Talks: Sarah Cohen & Alex Zhukovitskiy
• Het Talks: Lindsey James and Angel Hsu
• Het Talks: Marissa Hall and Kathryn Leech

These are virtual, CLE Credit events.

2025 Hettleman Winners

Sarah Cohen, Cell Biology and Physiology, School of Medicine
Cohen is creating a better understanding of brain health by studying the interactions of organelles — subcellular structures like nuclei and mitochondria that perform specific jobs in cells. Her work focuses on organelle dynamics and fatty acid trafficking in and between cells, particularly in the context of the central nervous system.
Her lab uses cutting-edge multispectral imaging and computational tools to visualize and quantify these interactions in real time, revealing how disruptions in lipid trafficking contribute to neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. To do this work, Cohen and her team developed a versatile fluorescent toolkit that allows researchers to visualize dynamic membrane contact sites between organelles. These tools have been widely adopted by labs around the world, accelerating discoveries in cell biology.

Lindsey James, Chemical Biology and Medicinal Chemistry, Eshelman School of Pharmacy
James is a trailblazer in chemical biology and her research focuses on understanding and controlling gene expression — how genes are turned on and off — something that plays a key role in many illnesses, including cancer. She does this by designing special molecules that can either block the activity of or break down the proteins responsible for controlling gene activity.

One of her major achievements is creating new tools that can target and eliminate harmful proteins that were previously considered “undruggable.” These proteins are often involved in cancer, and by removing them, James’ work opens the door to new kinds of treatments. Her lab has developed several of these tools, including one that can destroy a specific cancer-linked protein.

Marissa Hall, Health Behavior, Gillings School of Global Public Health
Hall is transforming how we understand and influence health behaviors through policy. Her research focuses on how product labeling, marketing, and availability shape consumer choices, especially around tobacco, alcohol, and food. She uses experimental methods to simulate real-world purchasing environments, and her work has demonstrated that pictorial warnings and front-of-package labels can significantly reduce the consumption of products like sugary drinks and cigarettes.

Currently, Hall leads NIH-funded studies on alcohol warning labels, exploring how stronger, more visible warnings can inform consumers about risks like cancer. Her research also addresses how labeling policies affect populations with limited English proficiency, a group often overlooked in public health communication.

Alex Zhukhovitskiy, Chemistry, College of Arts and Sciences
Zhukhovitskiy is reshaping the landscape of polymer chemistry through a concept he helped define: polymer backbone editing. He leads a research program that reimagines how polymers — long chains of repeating molecular units — can be transformed at their core. His lab focuses on three major areas: skeletal editing of polymer backbones, supramolecular engineering of entanglements, and the development of new mechanisms for controlled polymer synthesis.

Zhukhovitskiy’s work on skeletal editing allows chemists to insert, delete, or rearrange atoms within the backbone of a polymer, fundamentally altering its identity and properties. His team’s development of novel chemical reactions to convert one class of polymers into another enables the creation of materials that were previously inaccessible. In parallel, his group has devised methods to precisely control entanglements — mechanical connections between polymer chains — using supramolecular chemistry and has innovated new catalytic strategies for building nitrogen-rich and semiconducting polymers.

Kathryn Leech, School of Education
Leech investigates how everyday conversations between adults and children shape early language, literacy, and STEM development. Her work spans observational studies in authentic environments, experimental research to uncover causal mechanisms, and the design of innovative interventions that empower families to support their children’s learning.

Leech’s research reveals that the quality of adult-child interactions plays a more critical role in children’s development than the quantity. Her studies have shown that decontextualized language — references to past or future events and explanatory dialogue — are linked to stronger vocabulary, narrative skills, and scientific reasoning in young children. Her work is funded by an NSF CAREER award, with additional support from NIH and from partnerships funded by the Gates Foundation.

2023 Hettleman Winner

Angel Hsu, Public Policy, College of Arts and Sciences
Angel Hsu applies data-driven approaches to evaluate climate and environmental policy, primarily at the state and local levels. She leads The Data-Driven EnviroLab, frequently calling upon others from different disciplines to collaborate on research.

Collectively, her work has been influential in shaping the research agenda among those studying global climate governance and developing the quantitative approaches used to assess the impact and performance of subnational and non-state actors.

In his nomination letter for Hsu, Daniel P. Gitterman, Duncan MacRae ’09 and Rebecca Kyle MacRae Professor of Public Policy, says, “Hsu has made important theoretical, substantive, and methodological contributions to climate policy. Her research is highly visible and influential, and her trajectory and future promise are highly positive. Her contributions to research, teaching and service at Carolina are exemplary.”

Hsu’s work has been published in several leading journals, including Nature, Environmental Research Letters, and Climate Policy, contributing novel research in ways that are indicative of her status as a leading scholar in global environmental policy and her engagement in timely policy debates.

Hsu earned an MPhil in environmental policy from the University of Cambridge and a doctorate in environmental policy from the Yale School of Environment. Following her PhD, she served for two years as a postdoctoral associate with the Urbanization and Global Change Group at Yale University.