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The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Through its teaching, research and engagement, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill serves as an educational and economic beacon for the people of North Carolina and beyond.

History

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was the nation's first state university to open its doors and the only public university to award degrees in the 18th century.

Authorized by the N.C. Constitution in 1776, the university was chartered by the N.C. General Assembly Dec. 11, 1789, the same year George Washington first was inaugurated as president.

The cornerstone was laid for Old East, the nation's first state university building, Oct. 12, 1793. Hinton James, the first student, arrived from Wilmington, N.C., Feb. 12, 1795.

Location

Carolina has six new members of national academies. The American Academy of Arts and Sciences selected Chancellor James Moeser, James Jorgenson, W. R. Kenan Jr. professor of chemistry, Michael Taylor, W. R. Kenan professor of mathematics, Carlton Hunt, professor emeritus of physiology, and Terry Magnuson, Sarah Graham Kenan professor and chair of genetics, as new fellows. Jeff Dangl, John N. Couch professor of biology, microbiology and immunology, was elected into the National Academy of Sciences. Now the university has 35 faculty members in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies, and 12 in the National Academy of Sciences, a private organization of scientists and engineers dedicated to advancing science and its use for the general welfare. Another six faculty are in the National Academy of Engineering and 20 are in the Institute of Medicine.

Oliver Smithies, Excellence Professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, received the 2007 Thomas Hunt Morgan Medal from the Genetics Society of America. The medal recognizes lifetime contributions to genetics. Smithies helped develop a technique that gives scientists around the world the ability to alter particular genes in cultured cells and transfer those targeted genes to laboratory mice. Gene targeting allows them to design and produce “knockout” mice to study how the disabled gene works and to create animal models of human diseases. Smithies also won the 2001 Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research, the nation's most distinguished honor for outstanding contributions to basic medical research. The Lasker Awards have often been called “America's Nobels,” and more than 60 researchers who won a Lasker went on to receive the Nobel Prize.

David Ammons, professor of public administration and government, was elected as UNC’s fifth fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration in 2006. Chartered by Congress, the academy is an independent source of trusted advice for every branch and level of government, Congressional committees and civic organizations. Ammons specializes in public administration, productivity improvement in local government and performance measurement.

Gary Pielak, professor of chemistry, became the university’s first scientist to receive the prestigious Director's Pioneer Award from the National Institutes of Health. The five-year, $2.5 million grant funds his research on the role of proteins in disorders such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases. The Pioneer awards support "exceptionally creative scientists who take highly innovative approaches to major challenges in biomedical research.”

Blossom Andrea Damania, assistant professor of microbiology and immunology, was named a 2006 Burroughs Wellcome Fund Investigator in Pathogenesis of Infectious Disease. She is the first UNC faculty member to receive the award, which carries $400,000 in research support for five years. A tumor virologist, she is also a research faculty member at the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. She studies Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpes virus (KSHV), which is associated with a number of human malignancies.

Karen Mohlke, assistant professor of genetics, was one of 15 scientists selected nationwide as a 2006 Pew Scholar in Biomedical Sciences. This is the third consecutive year a UNC faculty researcher has earned a Pew. Mohlke will receive $240,000 over four years to support her research in type 2 diabetes genetics at the Carolina Center for Genome Sciences. Her goals include identifying genes that influence type 2 diabetes susceptibility and understanding their effects on biological processes.

Three faculty earned fellowships in 2007 from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation in recognition of distinguished individual achievement in the past and exceptional promise for future accomplishment. Jeff Whetstone, assistant professor of art; William Ferris, Joel R. Williamson Eminent professor of history and senior associate director of the Center for the Study of the American South; and Bob Goldstein, associate professor of biology, all in the College of Arts and Sciences, were among 189 fellows selected by expert advisors. Whetstone will use his fellowship to travel North America, in between the towns and on the outer rims of cities, to photograph “the nascent wilderness all around us.” Ferris will work on a book and multimedia project, “Mississippi Blues:  Voices and Roots,” which will feature musicians and their worlds that he photographed, recorded and filmed in the 1960s. Goldstein will go to Cambridge, England, where he will conduct experiments with stem cells at The Wellcome Trust and Cancer Research UK Gurdon Institute.

Carolina ranks among the top U.S. public universities in research support and creating jobs through new products and spin-off companies. The faculty attracted $593 million in total contract and grant funding in fiscal 2006 – up 2.4 percent from $579 million the previous year. That is more than twice the amount the university received as recently as 1997.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is Carolina’s central funding source, and the faculty ranked 15th overall in fiscal 2005 with nearly $300 million in total NIH funding. UNC is the top public university in the South for NIH funding. The School of Medicine received the vast majority of UNC’s NIH funds ($217 million) in 2005, ranking 17th nationally. All five of UNC’s health affairs schools—dentistry, medicine, nursing, pharmacy and public health—ranked within the NIH’s top 20 of public and private institutions.

Ongoing research initiatives include efforts to tackle challenges such as genome sciences, which is unraveling the mysteries of DNA and the human genome. Carolina has committed at least $245 million over a decade to be at the forefront of the genomics revolution. Led by renowned genetics scientist Terry Magnuson, the initiative represents a public-private investment that includes a $25 million anonymous gift creating the Michael Hooker Center for Proteomics to study a specialized area of genetics. Studies using mouse models and advanced computational and analytical techniques are revealing basic knowledge that will have direct relevance to how scientists understand human biology and disease.

One recent result of the genomics initiative is the selection of a team of Carolina scientists to help lead the Cancer Genome Atlas project, a national effort to characterize and chart the molecular changes in specific types of cancer. UNC's Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center was named one of seven Cancer Genome Characterization Centers for the genome atlas project. The award was announced by the National Cancer Institute and the National Human Genome Research Institute, both parts of the National Institutes of Health.

Launched in 2007, the Institute for Pharmacogenomics and Individualized Therapy, based in the School of Pharmacy, brings together researchers and clinicians across campus to create therapies and treatments for patients suffering from a wide variety of conditions. The institute aims to make drugs safer and more effective and speed laboratory discoveries by translating genetic discoveries into new ways of diagnosing and treating diseases. Howard McCleod, center director, helped identify genetic variants that predispose patients to risk of severe side effects or inadequate benefit from drugs for diseases including colorectal cancer and childhood leukemia. His research also has helped shape Food and Drug Administration guidelines for warfarin, a blood thinner prescribed to more than 2 million people in the United States.

A Carolina chemist is using a $3.8 million, four-year grant from the NIH to advance his tiny “lab-on-a-chip” technology for cheaper, faster and more customized DNA sequencing. The long-term goal is to reduce the cost of human genome sequencing from about $10 million to $1,000, and the time of sequencing to about 50 minutes. This would greatly expand sequencing's usefulness in medical research and health care, allowing health care professionals to tailor diagnosis, treatment and prevention to each person's unique genetic profile. J. Michael Ramsey, the Minnie N. Goldby distinguished professor of chemistry, was one of 11 scientists to receive awards from the NIH's National Human Genome Research Institute. Ramsey's was the largest grant.

Since 2000, the university has maintained a strategy of targeted investment in “big idea” research themes, knitting together existing strengths in various areas to create broad, interdisciplinary new thrusts.

Recent examples of key new interdisciplinary initiatives include:

• The “Roadmap for Medical Research” initiative, intended to focus future NIH funding in 21 broad areas of concentration. The university established a Roadmap Office to position the campus for the highest level of success with this NIH initiative, which encourages researchers to attack difficult problems using interdisciplinary collaboration and sophisticated computational techniques to create quick translations to patient care.

As a result of the work of the Roadmap Office and the strength of Carolina’s faculty and their interdisciplinary work, Chapel Hill was the only university to receive eight of 21 grants in the fall 2005 Roadmap competition. Carolina’s total funding through this program after the first two years totals about $15.5 million. Projects include the Carolina Center of Nanotechnology Excellence, which marries expertise in nanotechnology with patient research at the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. In 2004, Carolina also received more of the initial Roadmap grants than any other university.

• The Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI), founded by Dan Reed, Chancellor’s eminent professor of computer science, addresses problems spanning the sciences and engineering, the arts, the humanities and commerce. RENCI rings together technologies and communities to respond to disasters – from storm surges, hurricanes and floods in eastern North Carolina to landslides in the mountains – that require responses no one organization can address alone. RENCI was established in partnership with Duke and N.C. State universities. Its work fosters collaborations across the state, including with other UNC system campuses and state government. For example, current research about making accurate predictions of flooding in the wake of hurricanes or other severe flooding involves a team of scientists from UNC-Chapel Hill (including the institutes of marine sciences and the environment), N.C. State, UNC-Asheville and the State Climate Office.

• The Carolina Entrepreneurial Initiative, funded with a five-year, $3.5 million grant from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation is being matched two-to-one by the university. Carolina is one of seven Kauffman Foundation-designated “Entrepreneurial Universities,” chosen through a national competition. UNC is deploying new programs to create a surge of entrepreneurship among students, faculty and staff, including a new minor in entrepreneurship in the College of Arts and Sciences. The program is led by a team managed by the Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise. Successful entrepreneurs, many of them alumni, are advisers, lending their real-world expertise.

• The Office of Economic and Business Development (OEBD) matches faculty and campus expertise and resources with economic development issues facing North Carolina and its communities and organizations. This office is led by Jesse White Jr., who headed the Appalachian Regional Commission and the Southern Growth Policies Board.

Data that reflect the current economic impact of technological developments resulting from faculty research include the number of patents, spin-off companies, jobs and licensed technology. In 2006, UNC was awarded 21 patents; started five new companies, bringing the total to 36; licensed 43 inventions and received about $2.2 million in revenue generated by licensed technology.

Spin-off companies resulting from UNC discoveries include Liquidia Technologies, a 2004 start-up to commercialize inventions from the laboratories of Joe DeSimone, William R. Kenan Jr. distinguished professor of chemistry and chemical engineering at Carolina and N.C. State University. Liquidia has used a silicon wafer to create molds for making nanoparticles for drug delivery. Possibilities include developing custom nanoparticles for targeted delivery of anticancer drugs. Liquidia’s technology also helped the university land one of eight NIH “nanocancer” grants.

Other examples of commercialization leading to spin-offs include therapeutic agents for Parkinson’s Disease, technologies for drug delivery to treat cancer, industrial applications for carbon nanotubes and gene therapy treatment for diseases like muscular dystrophy.

The university was awarded a $21.3 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop effective, inexpensive drugs to treat late-stage African sleeping sickness and visceral leishmaniasis – diseases that kill hundreds of thousands of people in developing nations. The latest grant, the third from the Gates Foundation, supports the work of an international consortium led by Richard Tidwell, a professor in the schools of medicine and pharmacy.

UNC scientists are national leaders among those using sophisticated atomic-scale research techniques called nanotechnology, which may help guide efforts to manipulate viruses and DNA. Team members work with a device they invented called the nanoManipulator, which combines an atomic force microscope with a force-feedback virtual reality system.

Since the 1940s, scientists at UNC's Institute of Marine Sciences in Morehead City have served North Carolina by addressing important questions related to the nature, use, development, protection and enhancement of coastal marine resources. Its work includes the Neuse River Monitoring and Modeling Project on the Neuse River, which has been designated as one of the nation's 20 most pollution-endangered rivers.

Since the 1960s, Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute research and outreach has shaped how the nation cares for and educates young children. Researchers focus on parent and family support; early care and education; child health and development; early identification and intervention; equity, access and inclusion; and early childhood policy. FPG is one of the oldest multidisciplinary centers devoted to the study of children and families. Most of the institute’s work addresses young children from newborns through age 8. Examples of projects directly affecting the children of North Carolina include the Nuestros Niños Early Language and Literacy Project, which develops and tests an intervention designed to improve the quality of teaching practices related to literacy and language learning among Latino children enrolled in North Carolina’s More at Four Pre-Kindergarten program for at-risk children.

Carolina has spearheaded the Citizen-Soldier Support Program, which serves those serving North Carolina National Guard and Reserve personnel who are challenged, along with their families, by the demands and risks of mobilization, deployment and return from duty. Partners include Duke University, N.C. State, UNC-Charlotte, East Carolina, UNC-Greensboro, Virginia Tech, Bryn Mawr College and UNC-TV. The program serves communities in and around Asheville, Charlotte, Greensboro, Rocky Mount and Wilmington.

Serving the people of North Carolina is among the core qualities that define the university. Every day, faculty, staff and students shape their teaching, research and public service priorities to meet the state’s most pressing needs in every region and all 100 counties. Doing so fulfills the university’s mission, which includes extending “knowledge-based services and other resources of the university to the citizens of North Carolina and their institutions to enhance [their] quality of life.”

The university’s ties to North Carolina are so important that Chancellor James Moeser began an effort in 2004 to strengthen connections between Carolina and the state. Through the “Carolina Connects” initiative, the chancellor seeks to highlight and enhance how the University serves North Carolina’s people and communities. The tour began in April 2004. To date, more than 70 visits have covered communities from Manteo and Shallotte in the East to Asheville and Cullowhee in the West and points in between.

The School of Government helps improve the lives of North Carolinians through engaged scholarship – the application of university expertise to address community needs – that helps public officials understand and improve state and local government.

The Area Health Education Centers Program (AHEC), based at the School of Medicine, works with nine regional centers to bring health sciences faculty and students to North Carolina communities to provide care, share knowledge, reduce disparities among the underserved and help produce the next generation of North Carolina’s doctors, nurses and health professionals.

The Carolina Center for Public Service engages and supports faculty, students and staff in meeting the needs of North Carolina by promoting scholarship and service that addresses concerns of the state and contributes to the common good.

Carolina has identified three pivotal areas – education, health and economic development – as the focus of the university’s current efforts to enhance the quality and depth of engagement with North Carolina. These are the issues that North Carolinians have told the university matter the most.

Following are brief examples representing dozens of programs and initiatives that show the breadth and depth of the commitment that UNC students, faculty and staff have to advance the state’s interests.

Education

DESTINY (Delivering Edge-Cutting Science Technology and Internet Across North Carolina for Years to Come), The Destiny program at the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center takes the latest technology and learning tools to students who would otherwise not see a high-tech laboratory or learn what a career in science can offer

Two 40-foot buses deliver a standards-based, hands-on curriculum. Students might play the role of a forensic scientist, analyzing DNA evidence from a crime scene, or they might identify the genetic and environmental factors that influence a person’s likelihood of developing heart disease. Destiny staff also provide professional development for teachers. Since the program’s inception, 250,000 students have benefited from this innovative approach to teaching science.

North Carolina's teachers benefit from the Learners' and Educators' Assistance and Resource Network of North Carolina (LEARN NC), a collaborative statewide network of teachers and partners devoted to improving student performance and enhancing teacher proficiencies via the Internet. LEARN NC, offered free through the UNC School of Education, provides curriculum and instructional tools aligned with the state's Standard Course of Study and a virtual classroom of online courses for K-12 students and teachers. About 20,000 students and teachers visit the LEARN NC website each day.

Treatment and Education of Autistic and Related Communication Children with Handicaps (TEACCH), headquartered in the School of Medicine’s department of psychiatry, serves 6,000 individuals with autism and their families through nine regional outpatient clinics across the state. Goals include helping individuals function independently and finding jobs for about 1,000 adults.

In 2006, the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation selected Carolina to partner in a $27 million program to help more deserving community college students from families with low to moderate income levels earn bachelor’s degrees. Carolina is receiving nearly $900,000, and participation on campus benefits students from Alamance Community College, Durham Technical Community College and Wake Technical Community College. The program includes the Carolina Student Transfer Excellence Program, which aims to encourage community college students of great talent and potential.

In 2007, the Cooke foundation selected Carolina as the national headquarters for a new effort to increase college enrollment and graduation among low-income high school and community college students. In partnership with the National College Access Network, Carolina will become the home of the National College Advising Corps Coordinating Office, which will help other universities involved in the initiative.

Through a related $1 million grant from the Cooke Foundation, the university will place college advisers in 18 low-income high schools across North Carolina. Carolina is recruiting and training graduating seniors to work full time as corps advisers for one to two years with 11th- and 12th-graders, as well as younger students. These efforts draw from a successful Virginia model funded by the Cooke Foundation. In all, the foundation awarded $10 million in grants to Carolina and nine other campuses, including Brown, Tufts, UC-Berkeley and Penn State.

Health

Carolina partners with Elizabeth City State University to respond to the critical shortage of pharmacists in North Carolina. Students in northeastern North Carolina can earn a bachelor of science in pharmaceutical sciences from Elizabeth City State and a doctor of pharmacy from the UNC School of Pharmacy while remaining in Elizabeth City. Students are co-enrolled in an undergraduate pharmaceutical sciences program at Elizabeth City and the doctor of pharmacy program at UNC. They remain on the Elizabeth City campus for the first three years of instruction through video-teleconferencing, Web-based teaching and classes taught by Elizabeth City faculty.  Goals of the partnership include increasing the numbers of pharmacists working in underserved populations, especially in northeastern North Carolina. 

The N.C. Institute for Public Health, the service and outreach arm of the School of Public Health, brings the public health scholarship and practice communities together to inform and stimulate scholars and to empower practitioners to improve the public’s health, placing the needs of North Carolina first. Programs include the Management Academy for Public Health, an intensive executive education program combining traditional, classroom learning and Web-based courses. The academy trains teams of public health managers and their community partners. Teams develop comprehensive, practical business plans to implement in their own organizations.  

The North Carolina Breast Screening Program, based at the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, dedicated to reducing late-stage diagnosis of breast and cervical cancer in older black women living in eastern North Carolina. The program’s efforts to increase mammography and Pap testing rates aim to improve quality and length of life for rural African-American women and, ultimately, contribute to greater equality in health between black and white women.

The BEAUTY (Bringing Education and Understanding to You) Program is a four-year study to assess the effectiveness of using beauty salons in central North Carolina to share information about preventing cancer. The project stresses the importance of physical activity, increasing consumption of fruits and vegetables, reducing calories from fat, maintaining or achieving a healthy weight and obtaining recommended cancer screenings. The BEAUTY team has enrolled 62 salons within 75 miles of Chapel Hill in the program. Salon owners are recruiting at least 55 customers to participate in the program, so that nearly 3,000 black women are enrolled in the study. Studies have shown that African-American women are at a higher risk for cancer mortality than other groups. The program relies on cosmetologists to promote a variety of health issues after receiving training and the facts about cancer prevention. 

Through the Ethnicity, Culture and Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program, researchers are building on the knowledge that ethnicity, socioeconomic, gender, environmental and educational factors all play a part in health disparities. ECHO aims to eliminate health status and health outcomes disparities through research, multidisciplinary training and education, and culturally sensitive service to North Carolina communities. One of the few programs of its kind in the nation, ECHO works to connect the various institutes and research agendas across the state concerned about health disparities, especially through partnerships with the state’s historically black colleges and universities.

Economic Development

Through the Kenan-Flagler Business School’s master of business administration degree program, Student Teams Achieving Results (STAR) teams consult with and assist North Carolina businesses free of charge in return for the opportunity to learn from experienced business leaders about real-world business challenges. Companies served cannot afford the services of professional strategists and the experience reinforces students’ commitment to public service. The goal is to help struggling North Carolina companies identify the path to sustainability and growth, keeping and growing jobs for North Carolinians. In its 2005 pilot phase, the STAR Program assisted one company, E.N. Beard Hardwood Lumber Inc. of Greensboro. The student team worked successfully with company president John Beard to identify export opportunities in Mexico. The results were impressive – an increase from $0 to $250,000 in export sales in the first year and an estimated $500,000 increase in the second year. Since 2004-2005, MBA student teams have served more than 20 North Carolina companies and non-profits (a hardwoods producer, textile manufacturer, flower distributor, housing authority and a mattress manufacturer).

With the loss of multiple traditional industries, North Carolina communities are facing the challenge of how to sustain, grow and prosper in the 21st century. Housed in the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise at the Kenan-Flagler Business School, the Center for Competitive Economies works with leaders at the community, county and regional level to address the challenges of global competitiveness and create solutions that build on the unique assets of each region. The center has worked with Advantage Carolina, AdvantageWest Regional Partnership; Carteret County; Charlotte Regional Partnership; City of Salisbury; Kerr-Tar Council of Governments; and multiple state agencies.  Funding for this program is provided through grants from the entities served.

The Community and Economic Development Program in the School of Government provides public officials with training, research and assistance that support local efforts to create jobs and wealth, expand the tax base and maintain vibrant communities. It currently has a partnership with the North Carolina Rural Economic Development Center to help small rural communities create and execute strategies for community and economic development. Faculty and staff are training civic leaders and conducting applied research using case studies that show how small communities have been successful in development activities.

Kenan Institute Charlotte is a joint venture of the Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise, UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School and the Belk School of Business at UNC-Charlotte. Established in 1997, the institute develops models for creating jobs and alleviating poverty in the inner city, using Charlotte as its laboratory. The institute provides training and technical assistance to minority small business owners and entrepreneurs preparing to launch ventures to help them grow, create jobs and pump more money into the inner city economy. Promising businesses can receive technical assistance and capital from the Urban Venture Fund, which targets businesses that are between three and five years old with at least $1 million in assets. The institute also trains non-profit leaders to help them build successful organizations that can sustain themselves financially.

From the recently renovated Memorial Hall to the Ackland Art Museum to the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center to the North Carolina Botanical Garden, Carolina offers a vast array of educational and cultural opportunities.

Memorial Hall reopened in fall 2005 after a three-year, $18 million renovation designed to make the famed venue a focal point for the performing arts across the region. Memorial Hall hosts the Carolina Performing Arts Series and anchors the planned Arts Common, which will extend southward from Franklin Street to Playmakers Theatre, the oldest building on campus dedicated to the arts.

The Ackland Art Museum exhibits from a permanent collection of more than 15,000 works of art, particularly rich in Old Master paintings and sculptures by artists including Degas, Rubens and Pisarro; Indian miniatures; Japanese paintings; and North Carolina folk art. Astronomy enthusiasts and schoolchildren from across North Carolina enjoy the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center, which offers original productions such as the multimedia presentation of “Magic Tree House Space Mission” based on the children's series. Besides its displays of native and unusual plants and its nature trails, the North Carolina Botanical Garden offers art exhibits, nature walks and courses on topics ranging from home gardening to botanical illustration.

Professional theater also has a permanent place at Carolina through the PlayMakers Repertory Company, which performs in the Paul Green Theatre.

The Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History opened in 2004, becoming one of the few such facilities nationwide combining cultural programs, research, community service, teaching and learning under one roof. Funded by private donations, the Stone Center contains classrooms, a 10,000-volume library, seminar rooms, an art gallery, dance studio and spaces for performances, lectures, meetings and offices.

WUNC-FM, the National Public Radio affiliate licensed to the university, operates a five-station radio network serving more than 250,000 weekly listeners from Greensboro to the Outer Banks. The station broadcasts news and cultural programming from studios located at its Chapel Hill headquarters, as well as from the American Tobacco Historic District in Durham and the General Assembly in Raleigh. WUNC produces public radio programs including “The State of Things,” The Story” with Dick Gordon and “The People's Pharmacy." North Carolina Public Radio can be heard at 91.5 FM in the Triangle and Triad, at 90.9 FM in the Rocky Mount/Wilson/Greenville area and at 88.9 along the Outer Banks. A classical music service for the Outer Banks airs at 90.5 and 90.9 FM.

Last updated June 5, 2007