Biological Sciences

Associate Professor Reade Roberts and others found that some of the genetic loci for gut length in cichlid fish species are sex-specific even though males and females of the same species have the same gut length. The study could have implications for the understanding of gut length evolution.

Genetics student Hannah Pil is contributing to an artist-in-residence program at the Gregg Museum of Art & Design as part of an interdisciplinary partnership between the museum and the N.C. Plant Sciences Initiative. The program focuses on the beauty, function and diversity of plants.

Chemistry

Recent high school graduate Lizbeth Luna-Lopez gained hands-on research experience working in the lab of Associate Professor Caroline Proulx as part of the American Chemical Society’s Project SEED. 

Doctoral student Mabel Barreiro Carpio was one of the recipients of the Plant Sciences Initiative’s first Entrepreneurial Graduate Student Support Awards.

Marine, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences

David Eggleston, Alumni Distinguished Undergraduate Professor and director of the Center for Marine Sciences and Technology, reflects on how the Global One Health Academy Faculty Travel Awards helped support his research on blue crab harvest, processing, marketing and distribution in northern Italy.

Postdoctoral Research Scholar Elisa Bergas-Masso was part of an international team of researchers who found that a climate change-driven increase in Northern Hemisphere wildfires could almost double the amount of smoke particulates — and nutrients such as iron — in the atmosphere. Bergas-Masso did the work while a doctoral student with the Barcelona Supercomputing Center in Spain.

Mathematics

Over the summer, Assistant Professor Yairon Cid-Ruiz and Assistant Professor Jacob Matherne attended Collaborate@ICERM, a highly selective program at Brown University that brings together researchers from across the country. 

Associate Professor Tye Lidman traveled to the Université du Québec à Montréal to celebrate the 80th birthday of renowned mathematician Cameron Gordon, whose work has shaped the field of low-dimensional topology.

Physics

Associate Professor Rongmon Bordoloi was part of a study that found clouds of cold gas embedded deep within larger, superheated gas clouds, called Fermi bubbles, at the Milky Way’s center — the equivalent of finding ice in a volcano. The finding reveals that the bubbles are much younger than previously estimated.

Assistant Professor Julio Belmonte and Nanette Nascone-Yoder from the College of Veterinary Medicine won a five-year $2.8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to study left-right asymmetric organ formation, which could lead to strategies for early detection or prevention of developmental abnormalities in humans and animals.

Statistics

Several department faculty members and students were honored during the 2025 Joint Statistical Meetings, the largest annual gathering of statisticians and data scientists in North America. 

Professor Emeritus Dennis Boos, who previously served as associate department head for 11 years, retired after a total of 48 years in the department.