Enhancing Student Learning

The Town of St. James’ Living Shoreline Student Support Fund Endowment furthers existing research, education and outreach in and around the town by providing students hands-on opportunities in estuarine ecology, biology, restoration ecology, conservation and marine education. The work, including oyster reef establishment, living shoreline research and coastal science, informs sustainability efforts along the North Carolina coast and beyond. As the state’s coastal university, coastal resiliency is a core component of student and faculty research.

Sponsored by the Cameron School of Business with support from the Small Business and Technology Development Center and the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the annual Rocket Pitch Competition provides undergraduate and graduate students from all majors with an opportunity to share their ideas for new companies or products. James Plott ’21 won first place in the 2021 competition for his idea to start a glamorous camping business using glass-domed tents. Plott was among 34 student applicants and 11 finalists who pitched their entrepreneurial ideas to a panel of nine judges.

Danielle Goldberg ’20M, with Professor Fredrick Scharf of the Department of Biology and Marine Biology, examined how environmental factors impact red drum – North Carolina’s state fish – recruitment. This novel study found that wind plays an important role in transporting larval-stage red drum to nearshore areas and that higher nearshore temperatures early in the spawning season occurred during years with high recruitment. This information can assist forecasting by red drum fishery managers and can be used to improve future red drum management.

Professor Alison Taylor and Erin Meyer ’16, ’22 Ph.D., both of the Department of Biology and Marine Biology, had their work on mechanisms of coccolithophore and the role of silicon featured on the front cover of New Phytologist. The paper, co-published with several international collaborators, settles a long-standing question of the cellular origin of haploid coccoliths.

Jason Mott ’06, ’08M won the National Book Award in the category of fiction for his newest novel. The critically acclaimed Hell of a Book explores the injustice and fear of growing up Black in the American South. It was named winner of the 2021 Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Fiction, the 2021 Joyce Carol Oates Prize, the 2021 Aspen Words Literary Prize and longlisted for the 2022 Carnegie Medal for Fiction. It made the Entertainment Weekly “Must List,” the NY Post’s “Best Summer Reading Books,” USA Today’s “5 Books Not to Miss” and was chosen by the TODAY Show’s Jenna Bush Hager as a “Read with Jenna” pick. Mott is a former writer-in-residence in the Department of Creative Writing.

The Broadcast Education Association annually hosts a competition for faculty and students from around the world. “Digital Drip,” a performance-based show produced by UNCW undergraduate students in COM 482: Studio Video Production II, received first place honors in the Student Video and Film Competition Studio category. The 2022 award-winning student team – Abby Winstead ’21, Savannah Prince ’21 and Matthew Stott ’21 – were selected for an April 2021 episode featuring musician MoeSOS DC.

Travis Humble ’98 has been named director of the Quantum Science Center, headquartered at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. The QSC is a multi-institutional partnership that spans industry, academia and government institutions and is tasked with uncovering the full potential of quantum materials, sensors and algorithms.

North Carolina Space Grant and North Carolina Sea Grant named Allie Best ’23M, current UNCW graduate student, and Nicholas Corak ’11 as Graduate Research Fellows. This fellowship provides support for graduate students researching high-priority needs within North Carolina watersheds, coastal areas and nearshore environments. Their research projects will utilize data from NASA and NOAA’s vast archives, as well as the agencies’ remote-sensing data from airplanes, unmanned aerial vehicles, unpiloted submersibles or other technologies.