re :search a journey of
Multidisciplinary Ecosystem Assessment Informs the Future of Regional Coastlines
intellectual inquiry
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA WILMINGTON
re :search a journey of intellectual inquiry
COVER PHOTO: Assistant Professor Christian Briseño-Avena (foreground) deploys an in-situ holographic imaging system (LISST-Holo2) from the R/V Seahawk with the assistance of graduate student Gena Leib (background) during a research expedition to the Frying Pan Shoals. (see page 8).
COVER PHOTO BY MICHAEL SPENCER/UNCW
Our active discovery and innovation are just two aspects of what makes UNCW an institution like no other. The state’s coastal university will continue to discover new knowledge, solve critical problems and enhance student learning through research as we begin the university's next chapter. Last fall, we soared past our initial $100 million campaign goal and stretched to $125 million! Visit uncw.edu/give to learn more about how you can help position the university to recruit high-ability students and top-notch faculty to immerse them in powerful learning experiences.
Co-Editors
Contributors
Jack Bailey ’18
Hawkes
Jeff Janowski/UNCW
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/National Marine Sanctuaries
Bradley Pearce/UNCW
Michael Spencer/UNCW
Ata Suanda
Undersea Vehicles Program
Editorial Advisors
Stuart
August 2023
Dear Colleagues,
UNCW is dynamic! In the spring of 2023, UNCW graduated 2,408 undergraduate students and 696 graduate students. The undergraduate Coastal Engineering program, the first of its kind in the nation, has a new way to study the power of ocean waves – an 80-foot long, 5-foot wide, state-of-the-art wave flume. The highly anticipated Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Chemistry, the sixth doctoral program at UNCW, starts fall 2023. To better support and enhance the studies of our students and faculty-led research, the College of Arts and Sciences evolved into two new colleges – the College of Science and Engineering and the College of Humanities, Social Sciences, and the Arts. The university is also embarking on a new 10-year strategic plan that emphasizes new opportunities, interdisciplinary initiatives, regional relevancy, global importance and community commitment. Growing UNCW research productivity and impact are key elements of this journey as we discover new knowledge, address critical societal needs, drive economic development and enhance student learning and success.
Multiple forces are converging to drive changes in higher education broadly, including shifting population demographics, the developing work-from-anywhere culture, desire for diverse instructional delivery and knowledge certifications and an evolving strategy for the U.S. federal investment in research and innovation. At the national level, there has been additional emphasis on “use-inspired” research that focuses on societal impact and advances economic development. UNCW is actively engaged in this type of research. For example, two UNCW research teams are part of the 16 NSF Convergence Accelerator grants to improve food and nutrition security, and UNCW is leading the North Carolina Ecosystem Technology project, an NSF Innovation Engines development award. In addition, the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities designated UNCW an “Innovation and Economic Prosperity University” in recognition of its strong commitment to economic engagement.
It has been a banner year for UNCW research and innovation. This includes strong growth in new sponsored program awards – 182 new projects, committing $25 million in funding. This is a 64% yearover-year increase and the largest total in more than a dozen years. The university also had an over 200% growth in license income from university-generated intellectual property, and two faculty were recognized as senior members of the National Academy of Inventors. These metrics are important to give us a sense of the magnitude of the work; however, funding is fuel to support the new discoveries, student learning and community impact.
The stories in this magazine convey a broader sense of UNCW’s research capabilities and success. I hope you enjoy reading these highlights and recognitions of UNCW’s good work; I know I am proud of all we have accomplished in 2022-23 and look forward to more in the new year.
Respectfully,
Stuart R. Borrett
Associate Provost for Research and Innovation
Read more about the wave flume lab, the NSF Engines project and the APLU designation.
DISCOVERING
New Knowledge
Excavating Evidence of Early Agricultural Engineering
by Venita Jenkins
Within the depths of the lower Cape Fear and Brunswick rivers lie remnants of the region's history of rice cultivation and the enslaved West Africans and their descendants, the Gullah Geechee, who worked the fields. A team of researchers is attempting to document that history. Mark Wilde-Ramsing, underwater archaeologist and former director of the Underwater Archaeology Branch of the North Carolina Office of State Archaeology, and Joni “Osku“ Backstrom, environmental sciences assistant professor, have traversed the waters for the past two years searching for archaeological evidence of the fields once situated along the rivers’ banks. Their goal is to inventory extant rice cultivation remains on the northern end of Eagles Island, a 2,100-acre expanse located in Brunswick and New Hanover counties.
“We may lose some of these features due to climate change and development,” said Backstrom. “If we can show the importance of what we have within the region, hopefully we can prevent overdevelopment that may impact these artifacts. It’s about preservation, education and highlighting the knowledge of the Gullah Geechee people.”
line km of
These sites were the work of enslaved West Africans whose knowledge and skills made them critical to the success of rice cultivation from North Carolina to Florida. Their isolation in these marshlands resulted in distinct language, religion and lifestyle traits that created the Gullah Geechee culture.
“While the rice was the cash crop of the coastal Southeast, along with Sea Island cotton and indigo, Gullah Geechee ancestors provided both the brain trust and physical labor needed to change the landscapes into spaces that created commercial yields of the crop,” said Sean Palmer, director of UNCW’s Upperman African American Cultural Center and a board member of the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Commission. “The children of West Africa, who came to be known as Gullah Geechee, were agricultural engineers who, like the rice, were harvested for their vast knowledge.”
Researchers divided the northern end of Eagles Island into 10 subsections. Navigating the narrow, shallow, obstructed creeks and canals was a challenge for the team. While rowing in the area during low tide,
Wilde-Ramsing spotted a network of floodgates, bulkheads, landings and complex canal systems.
“This research has really stemmed from Mark’s keen archaeological observations and interest in historical rice cultivation while rowing in and around Eagles Island over many years,” said Backstrom. “The visual observations at low tide complement the subsequent high tide sonar surveys, and vice versa.”
Discovering New Knowledge
With the use of a side-scan sonar and positioning systems, researchers receive almost photographic imagery of the seabed. Large areas of the canal systems are mapped, then the sonar images are reviewed to identify sites to revisit. “We’re able to see things like structures, features, different kinds of sediment types; we can identify sand and mud. We can also get accurate GPS positions to know exactly where artifacts are and what they look like.“
The team is also utilizing aerial drone surveys, particularly at extreme low tides, which has shown potential sites for additional investigations, said Backstrom. Lynn Harris and students in the Maritime History Department at East Carolina University will assist the team in fall 2023 by dating the artifacts and interpreting specific types of sites.
Researchers plan to share their findings with Eagles Island preservation groups in their effort to conserve and manage the natural and cultural assets of Eagles Island, as well as with the Town of Navassa, a community within the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor.
“The main goals of this research include formally registering the specific artifacts with the NC State Underwater Archaeology Branch; supporting the initiatives of the Eagles Island Central Park Task Force, including establishing a Gullah Geechee trail; liaising closely with the town of Navassa, and supporting ongoing studies and environmental initiatives to educate, protect and preserve cultural and historical aspects of the enslaved Gullah Geechee people,” Backstrom added.
2023 Research Achievement Award Recipients
The Research Achievement Awards recognize faculty for their excellence in research, innovation and scholarship leading to the advancement of knowledge in their fields, discoveries with significant impact on society and the engagement of students in the process.
Rising Research Excellence Awards
Troy Frensley, Associate Professor, Environmental Sciences
Troy Frensley’s research focuses on developing and conducting program evaluations and research projects in the fields of environmental education, environmental interpretation and informal STEM education to understand the impacts of this work and what leads to successful programs and experiences for diverse audiences.
Peter Haproff, Associate Professor, Earth and Ocean Sciences
Peter Haproff, a field-based structural geologist, looks to answer critical questions related to Earth’s evolution by investigating the expressions, mechanisms and timescales of lithospheric deformation and magmatism related to tectonic processes, which can improve knowledge of natural hazards and inform risk mitigation strategies.
Lindsey Schroeder, Associate Professor, Health and Applied Human Sciences
With a utility patent pending for a neck strength assessment tool, Lindsey Schroeder aims to extend her collaborative research on reducing the incidence of traumatic brain injuries beyond athletics to the warfighter to improve the lives of patients and their families, unburden the healthcare system and support military readiness.
Blake Ushijima, Assistant Professor, Biology and Marine Biology
Blake Ushijima studies how pathogenic microbes cause disease outbreaks with corals and develops new methods to treat coral diseases, which can overlap with natural products discovery and be applied to human pathogens in some instances. Read more about his recent discovery on page 7.
Jill Waity, Professor and Chair, Sociology and Criminology
Ensuring food and nutrition security is essential to healthy, productive living and reducing societal inequalities. Jill Waity’s research in this area specifically tackles disaster food insecurity risk and college student food access.
Jake Warner, Assistant Professor, Biology and Marine Biology
Using marine invertebrates, Jake Warner seeks to understand basic principles of cell biology and contributes to a broader understanding of fundamental processes, including cell movements, growth and the development of diseases, including cancer.
Discovering New Knowledge
Research Collaboration Award
Marine Mammal Stranding Program, Biology and Marine Biology
Michael Tift (director), Julia Buck, Patrick Erwin, Tiffany Keenan, Heather Koopman, Bill McLellan, Ann Pabst and Lorian Schweikert
The Marine Mammal Stranding Program’s (MMSP) mission is to improve the understanding of the biology and health of marine mammals that inhabit local waters to enhance their conservation. With permission from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, the MMSP responds to sick, injured or deceased marine mammals in the southern region of North Carolina.
The Role of Sponges in Altering Seawater on Caribbean Reefs
As coral health declines in the Caribbean, sea sponges are becoming more prominent and this raises questions about how they affect the overall health of reef ecosystems. An interdisciplinary team, led by Assistant Professor Wendy Strangman (Chemistry and Biochemistry) and supported by the National Science Foundation, is at the forefront of this cutting-edge exploration. With water samples from the Mesoamerican Reef off the coast of Belize and the Florida Keys, UNCW researchers, including Distinguished Joe Pawlik (Biology and Marine Biology), Assistant Professor Winifred Johnson (Chemistry and Biochemistry) and Professor Ralph Mead (Earth and Ocean Sciences), are investigating the chemistry of coral reef waters and what sea sponges are doing to their environment as they process the large volumes of seawater they pump every day, particularly in regard to dissolved compounds.
Undersea Vehicle Program Instrumental in Discovery of Century-old Shipwreck
Samples and data from these animals enable important collaborative research and provide unique applied learning opportunities for students. Current projects include the study of the newly discovered lymphatic system in the central nervous system, the diversity of the gut microbiome between species and the link between parasite load and disease ecology.
Psychology Professor Continues Research on Binge Drinking in Teens
A National Institutes of Health grant awarded to Kate Nooner, professor in the Department of Psychology, builds upon prior successes in her neuroimaging and binge drinking research by specifically focusing on underrepresented teen populations. The study highlights how adolescents utilize their strengths and limited resources to navigate childhood stress and adversity with an aim to promote access, equity and inclusion in alcohol use disorder prevention.
Technology from UNCW’s Undersea Vehicle Program (UVP) assisted researchers in collecting high-resolution video to document a shipwreck from more than a century ago. In 1894, the Ironton sank in Lake Huron after a collision, killing five. The UVP team worked with NOAA National Marine Sanctuaries, the Ocean Exploration Trust and other partners to further explore the bottom of the Great Lake, where the shipwreck was well preserved by the cold freshwater hundreds of feet below the surface.
its three masts standing and rigging attached to the spars and is magnificently preserved by the
Ironton rests hundreds of feet below the surface with
cold freshwater of Lake Huron.
Photo: NOAA/Undersea Vehicles Program UNCW
EXTERNAL RECOGNITION
The 2023 class of Senior Members of the National Academy of Inventors included Professor of Computer Science Karl Ricanek and Professor of Statistics Yishi Wang, rising stars who foster innovation within their communities and institutions while educating and mentoring the next generation of inventors. Ricanek specializes in advanced research for the intelligence community in the areas of computer vision, artificial intelligence, machine intelligence and biometrics; Wang’s areas of expertise comprise statistical machine learning and data mining, semiparametric models, survival analysis and their applications.
English Associate Professor Maia Butler received a Mellon Fellowship in Democracy and Landscape Studies to advance her research centering visionary models of community building by Black women and nonbinary authors.
The American School of Classical Studies at Athens named archaeologist Nicholas Hudson, professor of art history, the Roman pottery lead of excavations of the Agora of Athens in Greece, where he will examine changing patterns of culinary traditions and social dining practices of the Roman Empire.
Kimberly Cook, professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminology, was honored with an American Society of Criminology Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of her sustained and distinguished scholarship, teaching and service in critical criminology.
Newly Discovered Probiotic Could Protect Caribbean Corals
Considered one of the most devastating coral disease outbreaks in history, stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD) has ravaged Florida’s coral reefs and is rapidly spreading throughout the Caribbean. Assistant Professor of Microbiology Blake Ushijima and his Smithsonian collaborators have discovered the first effective bacterial probiotic for treating and preventing this mysterious ailment.
Associate Professor Jessica Weinkle, director of the graduate program in Coastal and Ocean Policy in the Department of Public and International Affairs, testified before the U.S. Senate Budget Committee on the economic risks of climate change in coastal communities.
Michele Pedicone, clinical associate professor in respiratory therapy in the School of Health and Applied Human Sciences, was appointed to the 15th Academy of the National Academies of Practice, a nonprofit organization that advises governmental bodies on the healthcare system.
Associate Professor of Creative Writing Rebecca Lee was recognized as a 2023 Guggenheim Fellow in the category of fiction to support her forthcoming novel.
The goal is to improve current strategies to slow or stop the spread of SCTDL before it damages additional reefs, which provide essential habitat for marine life and protect coastlines from storm damage. This newly identified probiotic offers a potential treatment alternative that also avoids the danger of inadvertently spawning antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
Watch a video about Ushijima’s SCTLD research.
SOLVING Critical Problems
Building Beaches: Renourishing Shores Comes with Risk
by Krissy Vick
Roughly 30 miles off the coast of eastern North Carolina, local maritime relic Frying Pan Tower looms over a round, sandy ridge known as Frying Pan Shoals.
A saltwater angler’s dream and a treacherous nightmare for boaters, the shoals are infamous for strong currents and shallow waters, causing hundreds of shipwrecks through the years. Below the surface, the shoals harbor a thriving, high-producing ecosystem that includes an elaborate web of marine life from microscopic phytoplankton to shrimp, crab and baitfish to loggerheads, porpoise and sharks.
Frying Pan Shoals also has an abundance of sand. The area has so much sand that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) – the federal agency
responsible for managing the nation’s offshore resources – sees it as a possible place for dredging for future beach renourishment projects in the Cape Fear region. Due to storms, sea-level rise and other factors, the region’s beaches have been eroding at alarming rates for years, and sand to build up the beaches has been increasingly harder to come by. The risks and impacts of dredging here are unknown – but hopefully, not for long.
“Our region is at a deficit for sand,” said Joe Long, director of the coastal engineering program. “UNCW is perfectly poised to provide data and models that can be used by BOEM to help determine whether Frying Pan Shoals is a viable source for sand mining, and if it can be done safely and effectively without harming the important ecosystem.”
Long is co-leading a $2 million, multidisciplinary research project in collaboration with BOEM. Over the next four years, Long, his colleagues and students will take dozens of trips to Frying Pan Shoals to collect oceanographic measurements, biological samples and geological surveys that will help BOEM understand the shoal ecology.
Frying Pan Shoals captured by SeaHawk-1 CubeSat. The nanosatellite project is led by Assistant Professor Philip Bresnahan (Earth and Ocean Sciences), is funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and has transmitted approximately 7,500 highresolution, research-grade ocean color images to NASA to date.
“We have everything in-house to tackle this important project and understand this complicated environment from sea floor to the surface,” said Long. “We have experts in physical oceanography, biology, fishery science and geology – all these people and disciplines are connecting to better understand the complex interactions at Frying Pan Shoals. In addition, we have the important infrastructure of UNCW’s Center for Marine Science (CMS), which provides the research vessels, the technical support and the expertise to make it all possible.”
Ken Halanych, CMS executive director, said this type of multidisciplinary team approach exemplifies how CMS researchers can build on each other’s strengths to address complex community issues.
Fun Facts
UNCW, the state’s coastal university, is uniquely poised to gather the necessary data to help BOEM better understand any potential impacts from dredging of Frying Pan Shoals.
UNCW Project Investigators
Joseph Long
Associate Professor, Physics and Physical Oceanography; Director, Coastal Engineering Program
Frederick Scharf
Professor, Biology and Marine Biology
Christian Briseño-Avena
Assistant Professor, Biology and Marine Biology
Derek Grimes
Assistant Professor, Physics and Physical Oceanography
Andrea Hawkes
Professor, Earth and Ocean Sciences
The 2020 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Sand Availability and Needs Determination study indicates that southern North Carolina counties only have 60-78% of the sand needed for the next 50 years.
Communities are looking for sand sources offshore to dredge beach-quality sand that can be used to renourish the shoreline.
Shannon Klotsko
Assistant Professor, Earth and Ocean Sciences
Lynn Leonard
Associate Director for Research and Innovation, CMS; Director, Coastal Ocean Research and Monitoring Program; Professor, Earth and Ocean Sciences
Martin Posey Professor, Biology and Marine Biology
Ata Suanda
Assistant Professor, Physics and Physical Oceanography
Solving Critical Problems
“In this case, the team is establishing a baseline understanding of the Frying Pan Shoals’ ecosystem, which is essential for making scientifically sound policy decisions and ensuring safe and healthy coasts,” Halanych said.
The project is also a valuable applied learning opportunity for student researchers. Biology students towing nets to collect zooplankton on the shoals will interact with oceanography students who are deploying instruments to measure waves and currents and geology students who are surveying the layers of the shoals. Gena Leib, a graduate
Unveiling the Legacies of Historic Racial Violence
Sarah Gaby, assistant professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminology, received a grant from the Russell Sage Foundation, which prioritizes social science research into today’s most pressing social and economic concerns. Gaby’s research examines how the civil rights movement affected the relationship between historical racial violence and current day racism and racial inequality.
“In this case, the team is establishing a baseline understanding of the Frying Pan Shoals’ ecosystem, which is essential for making scientifically sound policy decisions and ensuring safe and healthy coasts.”
– Ken Halanych, CMS executive director
student in Christian Briseño-Avena’s lab, is studying copepods – pill-shaped, bug-like crustaceans that are a food source for larger animals.
“I’m looking at the biological side of the research,” said Leib. “My goal is to identify species of copepods along the shoals, which will give us important information about the bigger species being lured there and help us determine if there are time periods or places where dredging sand would be less intrusive to the habitat.”
The first field sampling began in the summer aboard UNCW’s research vessels – the R/V Cape Fear and the R/V Seahawk – and will continue through summer 2025.
Upward Bound: Helping High Schoolers Pursue STEM Careers
The Seahawk Upward Bound Math and Science Program (UBMS) will help high school students throughout the region succeed in STEM, while supporting them in pursuing college and careers. UNCW secured the only new Upward Bound project in the state of North Carolina funded in the most recent cycle by the U.S. Department of Education. Seahawk UBMS will provide tutoring and college preparatory workshops to 60 students each year. The goal is to tackle barriers like low standardized test scores, GPAs, and attendance rates, high dropout rates and math and science resources in schools.
Innovative Solutions to Address Affordable Housing Crisis
Working with residents in the Wilmington community, UNCW students developed innovative and feasible solutions to address the affordable housing crisis and its impact on older adults during the inaugural Intergenerational Design Challenge. The event provided mentorship to undergraduate and graduate students placing them in groups with older adults from the New Hanover County Senior Resource Center to learn about the issue and develop potential solutions. The event was organized by School of Social Work
Assistant Professor Alicia Sellon, Associate Professor of Clinical Research Matthew Peterson and Interim Assistant Dean for Community Engagement and Health Equity Leah Mayo.
UNCW First SE University to Acquire UAS
UNCW is the first university in the southeast to acquire an unoccupied aerial system, a state-ofthe-art instrument to support translational research, interdisciplinary collaborations and unparalleled student training, particularly in the Geospatial Intelligence certificate program. The National Science Foundation Major Research Instrumentation grant was awarded to faculty in the Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences – Former Professor Narcisa Pricope, Assistant Professor Philip Bresnahan and Professor Joanne Halls – as well as Environmental Sciences
Associate Professor Devon Eulie and the Center for Marine Science’s Associate Director for Research and Innovation Lynn Leonard.
Researchers Awarded NERR Science
Collaborative Grant for Coastal Ecosystem Study
Associate Professor Jessie Jarvis and Professor Stephanie Kamel, both of the Department of Biology and Marine Biology, are collaborating on a newly funded National Estuarine Research Reserve-supported project that will further their research on seagrass resiliency and restoration as a vital measure to protect coastal ecosystems against the effects of climate change. Seagrasses provide habitat and nurseries for fisheries species, help improve water quality and bury carbon. Higher ocean water temperatures have resulted in large-scale diebacks, and most restoration efforts fail due to climate change stressors within the environments. Their work will provide a greater understanding of why some eelgrass meadows are more resilient to temperature stress than others and will provide a tool to identify potential seed sources of more temperature-resilient eelgrass seeds.
ENHANCING Student Learning
Driving Change from Within: The Champions Among Us
Holly Eatmon ’23DNP spearheaded a project that has had a significant impact in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at FirstHealth of the Carolinas.
Eatmon completed the Nurse Executive Leadership concentration in the Doctor of Nursing Practice program and graduated in May. Her evidencebased project centered on the improvement of developmental positioning practices of pre-term neonates. Working in the NICU, nurses care for premature infants from 28 weeks’ gestation through full-term. The neurological status and low birth weight of these babies can impact how they interact with their environment and the stress they experience when they should still be in the mother's womb. Developmental positioning can address this issue.
by Jack Bailey
Eatmon focused on a positioning practice to prevent musculoskeletal abnormalities. To ensure babies’ heads are not misshapen, Eatmon’s team repositioned their heads frequently throughout the day while mimicking the in-utero state to make them feel contained. According to Eatmon, the need was so great that her team received a $10,000 grant from the Foundation of FirstHealth to purchase positioning aids for the unit. The team has been trained and actively uses these aids regularly.
Eatmon’s project also incorporated nurse-driven change from within the NICU at FirstHealth. Using the nurse champion model, Eatmon developed a team to provide education and implementation of the positioning technique. Within the nursing community, nurse champions are highly professional, front-line practitioners who serve as key agents in executing innovation, reforming policy and improving the quality of care from within the organization in which they operate.
“The beauty of the nurse champion model is that it can be utilized in any nursing specialty, in any type of practice, in any type of unit,” Eatmon explained. “Champions must be willing to advocate for change and they have to be passionate about the topic.”
In April, Eatmon was invited to present her findings at the Academy of Neonatal Nursing’s Advanced Practice Neonatal Nurses Conference in Honolulu, Hawaii. At this international conference, neonatal nursing teams convened to learn about advancements in nursing knowledge to support providing the highest level of care for patients. Eatmon’s presentation won the Innovation in Nursing award in recognition of her efforts to identify a need and improve an area of quality care.
“Dr. Eatmon's doctoral work has been the epitome of what it means to earn a DNP degree. She developed into a change agent who implemented an evidencedbased practice project that is directly impacting the health of the NICU community in which she works,” said Sara Hubbell, the School of Nursing’s DNP program coordinator.
“What offers me the most fulfillment is the bedside care, education liaison role for NICU/pediatrics units and the opportunity to teach nursing students,” Eatmon said. “This trifecta keeps me inspired.”
“Champions
must be willing to advocate for change and they have to be passionate about the topic.”
– Holly Eatmon ’23DNP
Enhancing Student Learning
Students Honored with Prestigious Fellowships
Graduate Student Kendra Devereaux was awarded a NC Water Resources Research Institute fellowship to support her study of ghost forest formation, specifically understanding how bald cypress trees react to increasing salinity caused by sea level rise.
Cate Arnold ’23, a double major in environmental science and international studies, received a Rachel Carson Campus Fellowship to research the correlation between gentrification in New Hanover County and the flood impacts of Hurricane Florence in 2018.
UNCW has three National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellows in the Department of Biology and Marine Biology. Juan Zuluaga, working with Associate Professor Ray Danner, is using cutting-edge methods, including infrared thermal imaging, to understand how birds thermoregulate at high temperatures. Jacquelyn Salguero, supervised by Assistant Professor Julia Buck, is cataloging parasites infecting marine mammals of the southeast and investigating how they interact with other stressors like contaminants and pathogens. Under Assistant Professor Lorian Schweikert, Lydia Naughton has helped to discover specialized photoreceptor cells in the skin of the hogfish and focuses on how and why these exist and what role they might play in rapid color-change performance.
Ed.D. Dissertation Paves Way to Student Designed Policy
The dissertation of Kayce Smith ’12M ’21Ed.D. led to the approval of a new policy in New Hanover County Schools giving students a voice in decisions involving rules and policies that affect them. Smith guided student discussions towards the creation of the Student Voice Policy, which calls for creating a Student Engagement Team at the district level and allows a high school student representative on board committees. The policy particularly aims to help underrepresented students share their experiences and perspectives to create a more equitable and inclusive learning environment.
Three-Minute Thesis Competition Showcases Graduate Student Research
With just three minutes on the clock, graduate students learn to succinctly present their research to a non-specialist audience in the Three-Minute Thesis Competition (3MT). Sponsored by the graduate school, 3MT prizes are funded by the Dr. Ralph W. Brauer Fellowship. In the fall 3MT competition, the first-place winners were Lauren Olinger ’23Ph.D. (Distinguished Professor Joseph Pawlik, Marine Biology) for “Sponge uptake of dissolved organic matter produced by benthic cyanobacterial mats” and Hawken Hass ’23M.S. (Professor Kate Bruce, Psychology) for “Episodic Remembering in Rats.” In the spring 3MT competition, Justin Van Heukelom ’23Ph.D. (Professor Raymond Pitts, Psychology) took first with his presentation “Risky Decision-Making in Rats: When the Going Gets Tough,” and Christian Sanders (Professor Sally MacKain, Psychology) placed second with “Parental Identity and Motivation within Treatment Courts.”
UNCW Hosted NC Undergraduate Research and Creativity Symposium
The 18th annual State of North Carolina Undergraduate Research and Creativity Symposium was held at UNCW in December 2022. Nearly 130 undergraduate scholars in all fields shared their work through oral presentations, a poster showcase, performances and works of art. Students, with their faculty and mentors, attended from across the state.
Accounting Student’s Honors Thesis Makes Forbes Article
The honors thesis of Emily Etgen ’22 was discussed in a Forbes article about mentoring in the #metoo era. Her study, under the supervision of accounting faculty Tom Downen, associate professor, and Lorraine Lee, Cameron Distinguished Professor, concluded that senior business professionals are not hesitant to take on mentees of a different gender but are reluctant to meet with these mentees outside of normal business hours and locations. To ensure fair and adequate access to the benefits of mentoring, it is recommended that firms formalize mentoring assignments and structure the times and locations for mentoring meetings.
Check out additional Cameron School of Business research also featured in Forbes.
Creative and Performing Arts Land Accolades
Ecotone was one of five national finalists for the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses Firecracker Awards, ultimately taking top honors in the category of “Magazines, General Excellence.” Founded in 2005 and produced by faculty and MFA students, the semiannual literary magazine features writing and art that reimagines place and champions innovative and underrepresented work. The Department of Theatre, founded in 2005 by Paul Castagno, received the 2022 North Carolina Theatre Conference College/ University Award in recognition of its outstanding academic programs, excellent productions, mentoring of students and community engagement.
Visit Ecotone’s website for current and past issues.
SPONSORED PROGRAMS, PROPOSALS
AND AWARDS
RESEARCH REPORT
2023
$5M
Million Dollar Club
The James F. Merritt Million Dollar Club is a university honor and recognition for faculty and staff who have received $1 million or more in external research funding.
Million Dollar Club Inductees
Ralph Mead Professor, Earth and Ocean Sciences
$1M
Philip Bresnahan
Assistant Professor, Earth and Ocean Sciences
Devon Eulie
Associate Professor, Environmental Sciences
Troy Frensley
Associate Professor, Environmental Sciences
Ken Halanych
Executive Director, Center for Marine Science and Professor, Biology and Marine Biology
Joanne Halls
Professor, Earth and Ocean Sciences
Andrea Hawkes
Professor, Earth and Ocean Sciences
Jessie Jarvis
Associate Professor, Biology and Marine Biology
Mark Lammers
Professor, Mathematics and Statistics
Chad Lane
Professor and Chair, Earth and Ocean Sciences
Joseph Long
Associate Professor, Physics and Physical Oceanography
Kate Nooner
Interim Associate Dean, College of Science and Engineering and Professor, Psychology
Eleanora Reber Professor, Anthropology
Ata Suanda
Assistant Professor, Physics and Physical Oceanography
Lori Sutter
Assistant Professor, Biology and Marine Biology
Michael Tift
Assistant Professor, Biology and Marine Biology
Thomas Williamson
Sayed Distinguished Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry
