The nation’s first public university is North Carolina’s premier research enterprise, powered by more than 200 years of innovations. Researchers, including more than 11,500 graduate and professional students, are addressing the world’s biggest challenges and fueling the state’s workforce.
Carolina research provides economic impact, supporting programs that help local businesses create jobs and wealth for communities, leading to a better economy for all of North Carolina.
Tar Heels have contributed to scores of innovations and discoveries that impact daily life. Those include building and protecting modern America, keeping millions of drivers and American schoolchildren safer and creating tests to diagnose bleeding disorders.
Read more about the discoveries Tar Heels made first, and for all Americans.
As an undergraduate, Shelby Baez put aside dreams of being a political correspondent to study sports injuries. Now, in her Psychology of Sport Injury Laboratory, Carolina students can do research that helps athletes recover.
Jason Franz, a biomedical engineering professor in the Lampe Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering, is helping older adults stay on their feet as they age by creating solutions to prevent falls and maintain independence.
Michael Fernandes de Almeida conducts research on cell resiliency in health and disease. He shares that passion with undergraduate students, training the next generation of biomedical researchers.
Kathleen DuVal wrote her Pulitzer Prize-winning book, “Native Nations: A Millennium in North America,” as an extension of the vibrant history she teaches in her undergraduate class through hte UNC College of Arts and Sciences. She received the award in May 2025.
More than a decade after winning the Nobel Prize, Dr. Aziz Sancar continues to teach, make discoveries and build cultural bridges at Carolina.
Alexis Longmire, a doctoral student at the UNC Institute for Marine Sciences, is exploring how manmade coastal barriers affect predator movement, seagrass and the future of waterfront communities.
Chemist Wei You’s second startup company is using polymers to create drug delivery systems for eye diseases.
As director of the N.C. Child Health Research Network, Dr. Michelle Hernandez leads asthma research in rural areas that make access to care and research studies easier for all.
UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health’s Nabarun Dasgupta was awarded a 2025 MacArthur Fellowship, known as a “genius grant.” Dasgupta was recognized for his work as an epidemiologist and harm reduction advocate who combines scientific studies with community engagement to reduce deaths and other harms from drug use and overdose. Dasgupta and his team have played an important role in the national response to the opioid epidemic.
