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There’s a high-profile change making waves in North Carolina’s marine science community this week.
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The director of UNC-Chapel Hill’s marine lab in Morehead City is leaving his job to run Duke University’s marine lab in Beaufort, Duke announced Wednesday.
Joel Fodrie, who earned his bachelor’s degree at Carolina, has worked at the university’s Institute of Marine Sciences since 2009. The prolific researcher and professor has led the UNC lab as its director since 2024. His research focuses on coastal ecosystems, fisheries, and marine resilience. His son is a sophomore at UNC-Chapel Hill.
Now, Fodrie is leaving UNC’s lab — for another one just five miles down the road, and decked out in a different shade of blue. But between the hues of Carolina and Duke, there’s only one shade of blue Fodrie is focused on: the blue of the Atlantic Ocean.
Fodrie said he has no plans or expectation to take significant funding with him from UNC to Duke, and certainly no money that would leave any student without funding for their research.
Still, “his departure is a great loss for UNC and especially its presence at the coast,” UNC marine science professor Rick Luettich told The N&O.
Fodrie told The News & Observer that he sees an example of how he hopes this change would positively affect both labs in former UNC men’s basketball coach Roy Williams’s decision to leave one blue-blood team for another.
“Roy Williams was having a hugely successful career at Kansas,” Fodrie said. “After he left to come back to Carolina, I would argue that Carolina basketball benefitted tremendously. At the same time, if you look at the data, you might argue that Kansas basketball benefited tremendously. The point is that sometimes change is good for everyone.”
The morning after Duke officially offered Fodrie the job in early June, UNC chancellor Lee Roberts visited Fodrie and the marine lab as part of the chancellor’s eastern North Carolina tour. Fodrie said that proximity brought up “a range of emotions” as the chancellor expressed his appreciation for Carolina’s marine lab.
But if anyone can understand a divided loyalty, it’s Roberts: the UNC chancellor is a Duke alum.
As much as Fodrie loves UNC’s lab, he feels it’s time for something new — and old.
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Fodrie grew up in Beaufort, where Duke’s lab is located, and says that in a way, the change feels like coming home. His grandmother worked summers at the lab in the 1930s per family lore, he said. It’s also the one he visited regularly in middle school.
He is drawn to Duke’s lab for its focus on social science and its capacity for more students in residence, as well as the chance to “work with new people in a new system.” He believes that for his particular scientific niche, he may be able to have more impact at Duke. Salary, he said, is “a factor, but it’s not the only factor.”
Ultimately, Fodrie’s main focus is on the value of North Carolina’s university marine labs in general.
“On a main campus, your labs are inside the buildings,” Fodrie said. “But the reason you pay for a field station is it puts your building inside the lab.” He says this allows for outsized and unique impacts for North Carolina’s universities and in the lives of students.
Despite being rivals on the basketball court, UNC marine science professor Janet Nye told The N&O that the Duke and UNC marine labs often collaborate, so she doesn’t anticipate Fodrie will become a stranger. He says he can function as a bridge between the two institutions.
One of Fodrie’s graduate students may follow him to Duke. But the ones who stay will remain “100% supported,” Nye said.
Despite the tough federal research funding environment, Nye said Fodrie’s departure doesn’t raise any funding alarm bells for her. She’s excited about the future of UNC’s lab: hiring new, young faculty, supporting graduate students, and continuing to do marine research that serves the state of North Carolina.
Regardless, UNC’s lab is left with some decision to make.
“This has all happened very quickly,” Nye said. The lab will work decide who will be promoted to director in the next few days, she said.
Andrew Read, the outgoing director of Duke’s lab, told The N&O he is “very excited” about Fodrie coming to Duke to lead the lab. “It’s time for new leadership,” he said.
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