North Carolina's marshes continue to fragment every day. Shelby Ziegler attempts to rebuild them by gathering data from the healthy wetlands that remain — a feat she often tackles in the middle of the night.

In the last 50 years, botanists have discovered more than 500 new species of plants across the Southeast. But it takes decades to actually study and record their existence — a feat that the UNC Herbarium has been tackling since its inception in 1908.

Graduating senior Frances Reuland is a research assistant at The Water Institute. She is majoring in environmental sciences and Spanish, with a minor in chemistry within the UNC College of Arts & Sciences. She also plays on the varsity women’s soccer team. Her research focuses on how inadequate energy affects environmental health conditions and facility operations within Malawian healthcare systems.

After visiting the Galápagos Islands for a research project over winter break, senior Haley Moser hopes to pursue a career in community-centered research after graduating from Carolina this May.

With more than 30 species of salamanders living in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the Highlands Biological Station, a UNC Institute for the Environment field site, conducts several student-led studies on these agile creatures each year.

Senior Cherrel Manley is an undergraduate researcher within the UNC College of Arts & Sciences, majoring in biology with a minor in chemistry. She is also a McNair Scholar. Her research focuses on the relationship between maternal exposure to phthalates — substances commonly found in industrial chemicals — and pre-term births within the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study.

Samantha Kistler is a doctoral candidate and graduate research assistant in the Division of Chemical Biology and Medicinal Chemistry within the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy. Her research focuses on developing and evaluating the modifications that occur within Ras proteins, which may allow for protein-specific drug targeting. Mutated Ras proteins are found in up to 30 percent of cancers.

Jillian Dempsey is an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry within the UNC College of Arts & Sciences. Her research focuses on understanding how to harness the sun’s energy to create clean fuel.

People with autism are twice as likely to use drugs and alcohol than someone without the disorder — a statistic that most people are unaware of. To educate the public on this topic, UNC autism professional Ann Palmer and addiction specialist Elizabeth Kunreuther teamed up to write a book: “Drinking, Drug Use, and Addiction in the Autism Community.”

Over the last five years alone, more than 15 UNC students have accepted jobs at Eastman, a materials and specialty additives company in Kingsport, Tennessee. On top of hiring Carolina grads, the company supports research projects across four departments within three schools at UNC, creating a successful model for how industry partnerships function at the university.

Rima Janusziewicz is a PhD student in the Department of Chemistry within the UNC College of Arts & Sciences, and a graduate research assistant in the DeSimone Lab. Her research focuses on a more effective way to 3-D print objects called continuous liquid interface production and how that method aids application development for the life sciences.

Junior Ling Lin is an undergraduate researcher within the UNC College of Arts & Sciences double-majoring in chemistry and Asian studies. She is also a McNair Scholar and a Chancellor’s Science Scholar. Her research focuses on developing novel antiplatelet therapeutics to inhibit blood clot formation and prevent the risk of heart attack and stroke.