Hínár György Polczer, our Information Security Liaison, has been featured on the UNC ITS website! Be sure to check out the short profile here.

Congratulations to David Pfennig for his upcoming article in American Scientist. The article, entitled, “Evolution and the Flexible Organism,” asks, “Do environmentally induced changes to individuals affect natural selection, and if so, how?” Check out more info here.

You can also hear David and recent UNC graduate student Nick Levis on the Big Biology Podcast. Both the article and podcast highlight David’s ideas and research on the role of phenotypic plasticity in facilitating adaptive evolution in novel environments. Congratulations, David!

The Copenhaver lab has published a collaborative paper in PLOS Genetics entitled “Histone demethylase IBM1-mediated meiocyte gene expression ensures meiotic chromosome synapsis and recombination” which shows that a gene, IBM1, which encodes a protein that removes methyl groups from histone H3, regulates chromosome pairing and recombination during meiosis. This work advances our understanding of how epigenetic mechanisms influence plant reproductive biology

Find it here.

UNC Biology’s Dr. Alan Jones‘ course, “The Physician’s Garden,” has been featured on the UNC website! According to the article, “The Gardening and Ethnobotany in Academia Project is a student organization that maintains the Sam W. Hitt Medicinal Garden on campus and encourages students and faculty to explore the relationship between plants and people — medicinally, economically and culturally at a local and global scale.” The garden itself is a product of Dr. Jones’ course. Read more here.

Congratulations to UNC Biology’s own Kelly Hogan, as well as UNC Professors Viji Sathy and Nicole Else-Quest, for the publication of their essay in The Chronicle of Higher Education! The essay, titled “How to Give Our Students the Grace We All Need,” lists ways in which faculty members can support their students without exhausting themselves in the process. Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz highlighted the essay in a university-wide email last week! Check it out here.

Brian Lerch, a Department of Biology Ph.D. student in Maria Servedio’s lab, has been featured in UNC’s Endeavor’s Magazine. “The Smorgasbord Scientist” centers on Brian’s use of mathematical models to address biological problems and to answer questions about ecology and evolutionary biology. Congrats, Brian! Link to article: The Smorgasbord Scientist | Endeavors (unc.edu).

Emily Harmon, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Biology in David Pfennig’s lab, has been featured in UNC’s Endeavors Magazine. “Disassembling Evolution’s Engine” features Emily’s research studying an animal’s ability to adapt in one generation, which could inform conservation efforts in the face of climate change. Congrats, Emily! Link to article: Disassembling Evolution’s Engine | Endeavors (unc.edu).

Congratulations to all our December 2021 Biology Ph.D. graduates! This is a huge accomplishment and the department would like to extend our appreciation for all your hard work over the years. We wish you the best of luck in your next phase of life!

UNC Biology’s own Dr. Bob Goldstein has written an article featured on Nautilus about Rita Levi-Montalcini. The article, called “A Lab of Her Own,” explores Levi-Montalcini’s journey from purchasing a microscope to discovering how the nervous system is wired while sheltered in her bedroom during World War II. Be sure to check out the article here!

Congratulations to Kelly Hogan for being quoted in the Chronicle of Higher Education! From the article: “Kelly Hogan, associate dean of instructional innovation in the College of Arts & Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, shared what’s happening in the biology department, where she’s a STEM teaching professor. ‘My co-instructor and I (and many of the faculty teaching the large intro courses in my department) have done testing online, open-notes all semester,’ Hogan writes. ‘We probably vary most in whether we give them a window of time to choose when to start the timed exam or whether it occurs only during the scheduled class time. We’ll all continue this for the final exam this semester.'”

Check out the full article here.