In 1817 Denison Olmsted joined the
University faculty as professor of chemistry, mineralogy and geology. The following
year, Elisha Mitchell joined UNC as professor of mathematics and natural history.
Both men were from the Northeast and deeply curious about the environment that
surrounded them in North Carolina. They traveled throughout the state with their
students, surveying and exploring North Carolina's natural areas.
Olmsted published his survey results
in two historic reports to the General Assembly before leaving to take a professorship
at his alma mater, Yale University, in 1825. Mitchell, who spent the rest of
his career at UNC, prepared field manuals for his students and published widely
in scientific journals. In 1857 he fell to his death while confirming his earlier
determination that the highest mountain east of the Mississippi was in North
Carolina. That mountain was later named Mount Mitchell.
The scope of environmental research
at Carolina has expanded considerably over time. So has the number and diversity
of those involved. Today the College of Arts and Sciences and the Schools of
Business, Government, Journalism and Mass Communication, Law, Medicine and Public
Health all include Environmental
Units at Carolina, research teams and Environmental
Faculty at Carolina that focus on environmental issues and problems. Some
— like Olmsted and Mitchell — investigate the properties of natural
systems. Others study varied aspects of the dynamic relationship between those
systems and human activity.
Several units are highly ranked and
contain a number of nationally recognized scholars. Among them are the Departments
of Environmental Sciences and Engineering and Epidemiology in the School of
Public Health; the Center for Sustainable Enterprise in the Kenan-Flagler Business
School; the Curriculum in Toxicology and the Center for Environmental Medicine
and Lung Biology in the School of Medicine; the Marine Sciences Program and
the Departments of City and Regional Planning and Public Policy in the College
of Arts and Sciences.
Contact the CEP's Research Programs
Office
Associate Director of Research Programs
David N. McNelis is responsible for CEP research programs. His responsibility
includes the CEP field-site network, all contract research funding and governmental
funding and all research administration.
His office is at 103 Miller Hall,
adjacent to the Carolina Inn on the UNC campus (on the corner of McCauley and
Pittsboro Streets).
David N. McNelis
Deputy Director and
Associate Director of Research Programs
Carolina Environmental Program
CB# 1105, 100 Miller Hall
UNC-Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-1105
919-966-9923 (direct)
919-966-9920 (fax)
Email: mcnelis@unc.edu
