Dr. Florescu honored as UNMC Scientist Laureate

This profile is part of a series to highlight the researchers who will be honored at a ceremony today (March 9) for UNMC’s Scientist Laureate, Research Leadership, Distinguished Scientist, New Investigator and Community Service to Research Award recipients.

Diana Florescu, MD, loved plants.

“There were plants everywhere throughout her house,” said Natasha Wilson, APRN team lead for the Florescu research team. She also had plants on display in the offices of the infectious diseases division.

Members of her research team say Dr. Florescu’s green thumb extended to people, as well. She cultivated and cared for them.

Dr. Florescu, who will be honored today as the 17th UNMC Scientist Laureate, was all about growth.

In a sit-down interview with eight members of the Florescu research team, the portrait of Dr. Florescu that emerged was one of a great researcher but also a funny, supportive, compassionate and, at times, competitive boss – someone who shared GIFs and memes, brought treats and cajoled co-workers into joining her passion for ballroom dancing.

She also, they said, was always available to them, both professionally and personally.

“If you needed her, she was there,” said Molly Ferris, research nurse coordinator.

An inspiration. A leader. A friend.

Dr. Florescu died Jan. 27 at age 54. (Read a tribute to Dr. Florescu.) While she was sick, the UNMC Division of Infectious Diseases held a ceremony celebrating her Scientist Laureate Recognition. (See the video shown at the event.) Mark Rupp, MD, read Dr. Florescu’s speech to her colleagues and friends.

“Dr. Florescu was an accomplished physician, clinical researcher and an all-around lovely person,” Dr. Rupp said, remembering the event. “We all miss her very deeply. I am very pleased that Diana was able to receive the award early – before the campus-wide event – while she was alive. It was a meaningful event for her and for all of us. Unfortunately, she was too ill at the time of our ID Division event for her to deliver her comments, and she asked me to read her acceptance speech.

“In her comments, Diana was very appreciative and recognized all of the people who had helped her along the way,” he said. “For Diana, the research was always about the patient – what could be done to help the patient – new understanding, new diagnostics or new modalities of treatment – but it always came back to what would benefit her patients. Dr. Diana Florescu will be long missed. However, she would be pleased to know that her research team is strong, and her clinical research efforts will be carried forward.”   

While applauding her selection, research team members said Dr. Florescu was not interested in personal accomplishments.

“Patients always were her No. 1 priority,” said Becca Cuthbert, clinical research coordinator. “She wouldn’t take a study for the prestige or the money. … It was all about the patients.”

Research team members pointed to Dr. Florescu’s work on the Novavax trial during the COVID-19 pandemic as a point of professional pride. “She wanted to do her part,” Ferris said.

But she also was proud of her work with immunocompromised patients post-transplant, they said.

“For these patients, common viruses could compromise the new organ they had received, and she took a lot of pride in finding novel treatments for these patients,” Matthew Palmer, a research nurse coordinator, said. 

Jake Williams, who joined the team last year, remembered the Zoom interview with Natasha Wilson and Dr. Florescu.

“Diana was sitting at home on her back porch, and there were birds chirping in the background, and she would chime in every now and then with a little joke or something to lighten the moment,” he said. “I thought that said a lot about her personality, that she didn’t want me to feel uncomfortable. She’d say, ‘Tasha, you have to tell him it’s fun here.’”

Still, he said, she was exacting “to make sure that I was going to fit in with everybody else and they were going to value my contributions, as well.”

Dr. Florescu was invested in her team’s success, Cuthbert said. “We all have different backgrounds and experiences, and she was able to cue in on our strengths and help us with our weaknesses.”

“She was a go-getter, she made you work,” Ferris said. “She wanted to be a leader in research, it was obvious, and she brought out the best in us.”

Ferris especially recalls Dr. Florescu’s bedside manner.

She was great with her patients, Ferris said. “She had empathy and compassion at the bedside. … She was multitalented.”

Research team members, who will carry on Dr. Florescu’s work, said they take satisfaction in Dr. Florescu’s recognition as UNMC’s Scientist Laureate but said Dr. Florescu herself would have been more concerned about her work than any accolades.

“What she instilled in me most as a mentor was her perspective,” Wilson said. “She had great perspective on what matters and what doesn’t matter.

“She had a huge heart.”