Hundreds of students, staff, postdoctoral trainees, and faculty attended 67 events celebrating the exceptional achievements made by researchers across all our schools, centers, and institutes.

Throughout University Research Week (URW): A Climate of Change at Carolina, our community became more familiar with the impact UNC-Chapel Hill is making in our state and beyond as the world around us changes.

Core Facilities Open House Tours

Core facilities serve as the backbone of UNC-Chapel Hill's research infrastructure. During URW, the School of Medicine Office of Research Technologies and the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research Core Development Team coordinated core open houses and tours to allow researchers and potential customers to experience these facilities in person.

Communicating in a Climate of Change

The Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research presented this featured event to highlight the role of communications in research. Investigation and discovery are key to protecting our planet's natural resources and advancing society. But understanding, inspiration, and progress stem from successful dissemination of those discoveries.

A panel of science communicators discussed how they explain complex topics with engaging content across a variety of media, and how their efforts engage audiences in a way that effects change. The panelists included: Matthew Turner, social media manager, National Park Service; Michelle Jewell, shark researcher and science communicator, N.C. State University; Kerry Irish, director of communications and marketing, N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences; and was emceed by Aimee Wilmoth, WRAL weather executive producer and meteorologist.

Hettleman Talks

Recipients of the 2023 Phillip and Ruth Hettleman Prizes for Scholarly Achievement gave presentations on their innovative and groundbreaking research. Included was Brian Conlon, who showed how his research in the field of antibiotic resistance aims to make previously ineffective treatments work better by manipulating how the treatment is delivered on a microbial level and reversing resistance by tricking the bacteria into responding to medication.

PARE Talks

Recipients of the Postdoctoral Awards for Research Excellence (PARE) presented their research.

Jessica Hoffman studies the behavior and molecular pharmacology lab of Clyde Hodge. Her work is based on the scientific premise that addiction to alcohol and other drugs is a form of maladaptive neuroplasticity.

Aleksandra Skrajna works in Robert McGinty's lab. Her research focuses on understanding universal principles that govern interactions with the nucleosome, the repeating unit of chromatin, which stores the genetic information of cells.

Woosuk Steve Hur works Matthew Flick's lab in the UNC Blood Research Center. He focuses on uncovering the molecular and cellular mechanisms that link the development of thrombosis, obesity, and associated metabolic pathologies.

For more information and additional 2023 Research Week presentations, visit research.unc.edu.