Biological science’s Daniela Cimini named College of Science Faculty Fellow

20 Oct 2023

A woman with graying dark hair and a blue shirt stands inn a hallway. — Daniela Cimini at Steger Hall. Photo by Steven Mackay for Virginia Tech.

Daniela Cimini, professor of biological sciences in the College of Science at Virginia Tech, has been awarded the College of Science Faculty Fellowship by the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors.

The College of Science Faculty Fellowships were established in 2019 with support from alumni and friends of the college to enhance the national and international prominence of the College of Science. These fellowships recognize faculty dedicated to extraordinary research and teaching, to recruit scholars with exceptional records of achievement, and/or retain high-performing faculty members who make significant contributions to the university’s research efforts.

Recipients hold the title of College of Science Faculty Fellow for a period of three years.

A member of the Virginia Tech faculty since 2005, Cimini serves as associate head and graduate program director of the Department of Biological Sciences. She has been instrumental in building the department’s program in cell and molecular biology and imaging. She is also an affiliated member of the Virginia Tech Fralin Life Sciences Institute.

She currently teaches courses on cancer biology and cytogenetics. She is committed to mentoring both undergraduate and graduate student research, having served as thesis advisor to 10 graduate students and approximately 50 undergraduate students in her research lab during her time at Virginia Tech.

Cimini is the author of 70 publications in leading research journals and has given more than 60 invited or keynote presentations at professional conferences. She is a member of the editorial boards of the Journal of Cell Biology and PLoS ONE.

She is the principal investigator of a $1.4 million National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant and has previously been funded by the NIH, the National Science Foundation, and several private foundations. For her career, she has been co-investigator or principal investigator on grants totaling more than $6.5 million.

Cimini earned her bachelor’s degree, master’s degree, and Ph.D. from La Sapienza University of Rome and conducted postdoctoral research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 2001-05.

Tumors and centrosomes: Researchers receive grant to investigate cancer evolution

Researchers closer to understanding how certain cancers resist treatment