Earth

Earth: Exploring Our Planet

Taking Research to New Heights

February 11, 2020

From surveying glacial melt to managing wildfires, there are endless ways drones can be used in research. Over winter break, UNC faculty and students completed a drone workshop ­— the first of its kind at the university — developing aeronautic expertise to apply to their research.

The Timber Chronicles

January 16, 2020

As a paleoclimatologist, Erika Wise studies climate trends from the past thousand years. Her methods of inquiry may be complicated — using microscopic crossdating and isotope analysis — but her research begins with something far more common: trees.

Megan Raisle

January 8, 2020

Megan Raisle is a senior and Morehead-Cain Scholar double-majoring in environmental studies and geography within the UNC College of Arts & Sciences. She studies climate change across disciplines to uncover how to be a more effective advocate for climate action and understand why it sometimes fails.

Xiaoming Liu

December 11, 2019

Xiaoming Liu is an assistant professor of geochemistry in the Department of Geological Sciences within the UNC College of Arts & Sciences. She studies old rocks to better understand Earth's elemental and isotope behavior and, ultimately, its history.

Nehemiah Stewart

November 7, 2019

Nehemiah Stewart is a junior double-majoring in chemistry and mathematics within the UNC College of Arts & Sciences. His research interests include how neurons survive and die in normal and diseased situations and developing methods to combat illnesses. In addition, he is a member of UNC’s JV basketball team and symphony orchestra and recently launched a university-based ridesharing app called Vector.

Alecia Septer

October 30, 2019

Alecia Septer is an assistant professor in the Department of Marine Sciences within the UNC College of Arts & Sciences. She researches how bacteria compete for space and resources to aid in the development of future treatments for when such microbes cause health problems.

A Leading Research Institution

October 16, 2019

University Research Week, November 4-8, is an annual celebration of Carolina’s research excellence and an effort to increase participation by students, of all levels, in research activity. Through lectures, workshops, lab tours, and more, the campus community will become more familiar with our world-class research and the strategic initiatives that make Carolina one of the top research institutions in the world.

Kate Richardson

Kate Richardson is a junior and Chancellor’s Science Scholar double-majoring in physics and computer science within the UNC College of Arts & Sciences. She researches dark matter and how it might be composed of hypothetical elementary particles called axions.

Oliver Lamb

October 9, 2019

Oliver Lamb is a postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Geological Sciences within the UNC College of Arts & Sciences. He explores how seismology and infrasound can be used to study natural phenomena like active volcanoes.

Climate Game-Changers

October 3, 2019

For thousands of years, the northern Andes Mountains have acted as a carbon sink, preserving organic matter as thick soil. As the planet warms, what will happen to all that carbon? This past summer, Carolina undergraduates traveled to Ecuador to take a closer look.