The Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research is once again proud to partner with the Office for Undergraduate Research to host University Research Week. Now in its fifth iteration as a pan-campus celebration of Carolina’s research excellence, the event has become one of the University’s signature annual events and will be held from October 23-27. Each year we celebrate the many ways that Carolina’s research impacts our state and beyond with research that aims to solve the world’s greatest challenges.
This year, the theme of the celebration is, “A Climate of Change at Carolina.” Through many exciting events, lectures, and presentations, we will recognize the contributions of students and faculty who are engaged in innovative research that supports new discoveries in their fields while the world around them changes.
Carolina has always been at the forefront when it comes to environmental science and scholarship — whether it’s finding solutions to PFAS in North Carolina waterways, creating novel solar energy solutions, predicting financial risk of hazardous weather, or managing fragile shorelines — our faculty and student researchers are accelerating new discoveries and solutions to environmental challenges.
Recent extreme weather events around the globe have illustrated the deadly and costly impacts of environmental change. During URW, the OVCR will host a series of Lunch and Learn panel sessions to highlight cutting-edge environmental science and scholarship. Each session is hosted by leaders from our top environment-related units across campus. At these sessions, attendees will learn how our researchers, along with their teams and students, are addressing flooding, health, the economy, and distinct populations affected by climate change.
Flooding and our Future
Floods are one of the most consequential hazards facing North Carolina and the world due to their unpredictability, severity, and economic and health impacts. Presented by the North Carolina Collaboratory and the UNC Institue for the Environment (IE), the Flooding and our Future panel will explore the impact of flooding on coastal ecosystems. The panel will feature researchers who are currently funded by the NC Collaboratory’s NC Flood Resiliency Hub which focuses on many issues including flood mapping, mitigation actions, resiliency planning efforts, natural infrastructure, and community impacts.
While flooding is certainly an issue with weather-related emergencies due to storm surges in coastal regions, rural and urban environments are also at risk. Research from the NC Flood Resiliency Hub has recently shown that as city sprawl continues to spread across the state, flooding is set to become more of a threat if mitigating measures are not taken. The Hub also provides the latest information about flood research and efforts to mitigate the impacts of large storm events for lawmakers and other stakeholders.
NC Collaboratory Research Director Greer Arthur will moderate the panel discussion featuring IE Director and UNC’s Chief Sustainability Officer Mike Piehler, Assistant Professor of Earth, Marine and Environmental Sciences Antonia Sebastian, and William R. Kenan Jr. Distinguished Professor, Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering Greg Characklis.
Health and Heat
There has also been an increase in extreme temperature events across the globe, with devastating impacts, ranging from water and food shortages to health to energy and emergency hazards. Researchers at UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, the UNC School of Medicine, and many Carolina centers and institutes are on the frontlines of assessing the impact of rising temperatures and environmental exposures on human health. These researchers focus on the complex and dynamic interactions across natural, engineered, economic, and social systems.
Jason West, professor and director of graduate studies in the environmental sciences and engineering department, recently published findings on how extreme heat and intensity of urban heat islands (cities where temperatures are warmer than nearby rural areas) affect cardiovascular health. In 2022, W.R. Kenan Jr. Distinguished Professor Hans Paerl was awarded the lifetime achievement award by the U.S. National Harmful Algal Bloom Committee for his body of work on the increase of algal blooms as a result of warmer temperatures. And Noah Kittner, assistant professor of environmental sciences and engineering, is interested in better understanding disparities associated with energy burdens and how climate change may be exacerbating these inequalities.
These researchers will be sharing their work during the Health and Heat Lunch and Learn session, which is co-presented by Gillings and will be moderated by Rebecca Fry, director of the Institute for Environmental Health Solutions within Gillings.
Economics and Environment
Climate changes bring significant environmentally related financial losses, ranging from weather-related damage, water and food shortages, health impacts, remediation costs, and more. The economic impact of climate change will be the focus of the third Lunch and Learn session of the week, Economics and Environment. This panel will be co-presented by the UNC School of Government’s Environmental Finance Center, and the center’s director, Erin Riggs, will moderate the discussion.
Panelists include Professor of Finance Ric Colacito, whose recent research found that, in the worst-case scenario, rising temperatures could reduce U.S. economic growth by up to one-third over the next century. Aubrey L. Brooks Professor of Law Don Hornstein will also be a panelist. Brooks is a highly cited, nationally recognized expert of disaster, natural resources, insurance, and environmental laws.
UNC Water Institute Environmental Engineer and Research Associate Siddhartha Roy will be the session’s third panelist. As a graduate student, Roy worked on the Flint water crisis. At the Water Institute, he is working in some of the poorest countries in the world and asking important questions about water quality and health, issues compounded by the effects of changing climates.
Communities and Climate
Populations are impacted by environmental changes in complex and often bidirectional ways. The fourth session of the week, Communities and Climate, will explore populations impacted by climate change. No stranger to population science, UNC Carolina Population Center (CPC) Director Karen Guzzo will moderate the panel, and the center will co-present the session.
Panelists include Carolina Demography Director Nathan Dollar, who served as a research scientist and project director for the Dynamics of Extreme Events, People, and Places (DEEPP) project at CPC where he worked with an interdisciplinary team of researchers investigating the factors that shape how people and communities in eastern North Carolina prepare for, are affected by, and recover from extreme weather events.
UNC Coastal Resilience Center (CRC) Research Associate Fern Hickey, a contributor to the CRC’s recent Year 2 Landscape Study Report, will also serve as a panelist. The report was co-authored by CRC researchers Cassandra Davis, Miyuki Hino, and Phil Berke, among others, and provides evidence as to how local and federal agencies can improve measurement of outcomes for marginalized groups to help guide resilience and disaster recovery planning.
Chair of the Department of Geography and Environment Conghe Song will be the session’s third panelist. Song’s recent research investigates interrelationships among land-cover/land-use change and global climate change, deforestation and reforestation, urban expansion, and agricultural extensification and abandonment.
Our campus expertise in environment- and climate-related sciences goes far beyond the group of impressive speakers featured at our Lunch and Learn sessions. These panel sessions represent just a fraction of the work Carolina researchers and students are conducting that creates beneficial impact for people and their environments. I hope you will join me in attending these sessions and in exploring the other exciting events planned for this year’s University Research Week. The featured sessions are truly impressive and feature some of the most exciting and impactful research happening on our campus.