Research

The Formula for Reform

July 9, 2020

Jessica Smith is a professor within the UNC School of Government and director of the Criminal Justice Innovation Lab. Her decades-long career at Carolina has evolved alongside the state’s criminal justice system, which she has helped transform using an evidence-based formula for reform.

Nilu Goonetilleke

July 8, 2020

Nilu Goonetilleke is an assistant professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology within the UNC School of Medicine. She studies the immune cell response to several major human infections, like HIV, and develops strategies to limit the causes and spread of disease.

Seth Noar

June 24, 2020

Seth Noar is a professor within the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media and a researcher at the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. He studies how people can effectively use communication to change behavior and improve health.

An Active Storm Season

June 18, 2020

June 1 marked the start of the 2020 hurricane season — and it’s slated to be an active one. In this Q&A, UNC researcher Rick Luettich talks about this year’s above-average hurricane forecast, the impact these storms have on inland populations, and how COVID-19 may affect vulnerable communities.

For the Love of Language

June 17, 2020

Since 1984, over 100,000 Karen refugees have fled their homeland of Myanmar to escape civil war. Since then, more than 40,000 have resettled in the U.S., and more than 5,000 live in North Carolina. Such displacement greatly affects lives, and even language — within just three generations their native tongue is barely spoken. Linguistics PhD students Amy Reynolds and Jen Boehm strive to understand this shift and hope to preserve the Karen people’s histories in the process.

Sounding the Alarm

June 11, 2020

Racial discrimination is not only a matter of sight — sound can also be racialized. Petal Samuel’s research traces colonial bans on drums and horns included in slave codes to modern-day noise abatement efforts in black communities.

Aaron Anselmo

May 20, 2020

Aaron Anselmo is an assistant professor in the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy. He develops new strategies and technologies that alter the microbiome by removing pathogens and increasing beneficial bacteria.

Machine Morality

May 19, 2020

As machines become more autonomous, humans must define the limits of their decision-making. UNC postdoctoral researcher Yochanan Bigman addresses this topic, suggesting where to draw the line when self-governing technology is required to make life-or-death decisions.

The Fast and the Autonomous

May 15, 2020

In a small corner of Sitterson Hall sits a fleet of pint-size cars that can see and navigate independently, winning races for the team of UNC computer science students that created them. While the stakes are low for these high-tech toys, it's a completely different game when applied to full-size vehicles in the real world — the application of professor Parasara Sridhar Duggirala's research.

Navigating Ethics in Animal Research

May 13, 2020

How do people distinguish between what’s right and what’s wrong in the world of animal research? It’s not simple, says UNC bioethicist Rebecca Walker. Like most complex issues, this topic has a lot of gray areas — which Walker explores using the ancient philosophical approach called virtue ethics.