On a brisk day almost 28 years ago, a graduate student from Paris, France, strode out of the terminal at Raleigh-Durham International Airport. He took in the blue sky and smelled a whiff of pine in the air. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rodolphe Barrangou, now a world-renowned scientist, serial entrepreneur and 2025 CALS Distinguished Alumni Award recipient, uses a decidedly un-scientific word for what he felt that day: a vibe. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt was a moment where time stops for a second, and it just feels right,\u201d Barrangou says. \u201cYou have a sense of being home when you\u2019ve never been there. You can\u2019t explain it, but it\u2019s that sense of belonging.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false,"raw":"\n\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt was a moment where time stops for a second, and it just feels right,\u201d Barrangou says. \u201cYou have a sense of being home when you\u2019ve never been there. You can\u2019t explain it, but it\u2019s that sense of belonging.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n"},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On a brisk day almost 28 years ago, a graduate student from Paris, France, strode out of the terminal at Raleigh-Durham International Airport. He took in the blue sky and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":103,"featured_media":16252,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"source":"","ncst_custom_author":"","ncst_show_custom_author":false,"ncst_dynamicHeaderBlockName":"ncst\/default-post-header","ncst_dynamicHeaderData":"{\"showAuthor\":false,\"showDate\":true,\"showFeaturedVideo\":false,\"subtitle\":\"Founder Rodolphe Barrangou reflects on his journey from an NC State graduate student to a world-renowned scientist.\",\"displayCategoryID\":3}","ncst_content_audit_freq":"","ncst_content_audit_date":"","ncst_content_audit_display":false,"ncst_backToTopFlag":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[54,99,170,187,188],"_ncst_magazine_issue":[],"class_list":["post-16251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-startup-news","tag-commercialization","tag-innovation","tag-research","tag-startup","tag-startups"],"displayCategory":{"term_id":3,"name":"Startup News","slug":"startup-news","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":3,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":2,"count":71,"filter":"raw"},"acf":{"ncst_posts_meta_modified_date":""},"yoast_head":"\n