Issue: Spring 2014

Stories

Ashby receives alumni faculty service award
Valerie Ashby, chair of the UNC chemistry department, received a 2014 General Alumni Association (GAA) Faculty Service Award.

Caterpillars respond to climate change
Research by a team of UNC biologists and graduate student shows that some caterpillars are already evolving to cope with climate change.

Entrepreneurship student designs trackable wallet
Entrepreneurship student Andre Bauer has designed a wallet with GPS technology designed to prevent theft.

Something in the water at PlayMakers
Last fall PlayMakers Repertory Company transformed the Paul Green Theatre into an aquatic wonderland complete with indoor pool for the mythological storytelling of the Tony Award-winning play “Metamorphoses,” presented in repertory with the Shakespearean epic “The Tempest.”

Lives discovered
Details from the lives of black artisans in North Carolina, unseen for more than 100 years, are being discovered by UNC students using digital resources.

Making a difference for schizophrenia patients
The special mentor-mentee relationship between David Penn and Dave Roberts has led to improving the social lives of schizophrenia patients around the world.

Experience matters
That familiar sea of blue will soon fill Kenan Stadium again, as our latest crop of Carolina graduates takes on the world. This issue of the magazine reminds me about how the practical experiences we give our students during their time at UNC are helping to shape their future lives.

Reflection at the Malecon
Biology graduate student Abel Valdivia’s stunning photograph at the Havana seawall.

College Bookshelf Spring 2014
Remembering Bill Friday, a new collection from Russell Banks, plus books on Eating Asian American, the Southerner’s guide to living a good life, military chaplains and the Vietnam War, the “other Gospels,” politics from Nixon to NAFTA, and more

Teen Health Tracker: Connecting the dots from adolescence to aging
Imagine if we had the ability to predict how teens’ health, social experiences, genetic makeup and living environment might influence their physical state later in adulthood. That mission drives the work of sociologist Kathleen Mullan Harris.

Addiction science: Unraveling clues to addictive behaviors
UNC psychology researchers are looking inside the brain and testing clinical interventions to learn how drugs and alcohol affect the brain, and they are designing strategies to help break the cycle of addiction.

They’ve got the beat: Popular music classes teach songwriting, DJ culture
Popular music classes taught by professors Bland Simpson and Mark Katz teach songwriting, DJ culture and more.

Mipso: Up-and-coming acoustic trio bleeds Carolina blue
The southern string band Mipso, made up of 2013 UNC alums Joseph Terrell on guitar, Jacob Sharp on mandolin and Wood Robinson on double bass, are going to be putting a lot of miles on their Subaru this spring.

Global Ready: Joint degree from UNC, NUS gives students an edge
Carolina took its global education ambitions to a new level in 2007, when the College of Arts and Sciences established an unusual joint degree program with the National University of Singapore, considered among the best universities in the world.

Hong Kong: East meets west in global capital
Jashawnna Gladney ’16 had never been out of the country or even flown on an airplane before. Her dream came true last June when she boarded a jet in Raleigh for a 17-hour trip to Hong Kong.