UNCRS Category: Natural Sciences

Fixing Tiny Hearts

Whitney Edwards in her lab

Whitney Edwards studies how the heart develops to pinpoint when congenital heart disease occurs and improve treatment options for high-risk cases.

Mentorship in Motion

pink and blue lights illuminate a man in a lab

Pedro Sáenz’s lab is making waves with math, transforming invisible phenomena into visual experiments to improve our understanding of physics.

RUNC: Kamya Bates

a young girl sits in a lab with a tray of seagrass in front of her

Kamya Bates studies one of the coast’s most valuable resources: seagrass.

Casting Lines, Catching Data

young woman on the beach at sunset with anglers fishing behind her

Sally Dowd blends scientific data with angler observations to protect ocean predators, the ecosystems they support, and the communities that depend on them.

Where the Seagrass Grows

two young women look at seed samples in a wooden sifter

Heather Bruck and Nadya Gutierrez study how shrinking seagrass meadows could threaten the future of vital underwater ecosystems.

The Shellfish Sleuth

a young man holds a handful of oysters

Colin Eimers is investigating why so many N.C. oysters die off each year — and how to stop it before farmers lose entire harvests.

Marine Crossroads

young woman holding a fishing net over her shoulder looks out at the water

Alexis Longmire is exploring how manmade coastal barriers affect predator movement, seagrass, and the future of waterfront communities.

Flooded Futures

two women stand under a bridge in Bolin Creek

Flood researchers Antonia Sebastian and Miyuki Hino are reshaping how the Southeast prepares for storms.