Ralph S. Baric
Ralph Steven Baric (born 1954) is William R. Kenan Jr. Distinguished Professor in the Department of Epidemiology, and Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Baric's work involves coronaviruses, including gain of function research aimed at devising effective vaccines against coronaviruses. Baric has warned of emerging coronaviruses presenting as a significant threat to global health, due to zoonosis. Career. Baric has published multiple articles and book chapters on the epidemiology and genetics of various viruses, including norovirus, and coronaviruses, as well as potential treatments for viral  diseases. In 2015, with Shi Zhengli of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, he published an article titled "A SARS-like cluster of circulating bat coronaviruses shows potential for human emergence," which describes their work in generating and characterizing "a chimeric virus expressing the spike of bat coronavirus SHC014 in a mouse-adapted SARS-CoV backbone." In 2020, Baric contributed to establishing the official nomenclature and taxonomic classification of SARS-CoV-2. In 2021, he was elected member of the U. S. National Academy of Sciences.