Other Environmental Centers, Programs and Institutes on Campus

The campus is home to more than a dozen centers focused on research into fundamental and applied aspects of environmental study. Some of these centers are housed within departments, some are housed within the College of Arts and Sciences or the professional schools, and others are campus-wide collaborations. Most of these integrate research by applying scientific methods to a specific set of environmental problems such as population and development, environmental health, or drinking water. For more information on any of these, contact the center through the links provided.

The Carolina Population Center provides its more than 50 faculty fellows from 16 departments of the university an organizational nexus, technical staff, facilities and resources for the conduct of their population research, and for research training of graduate students and post-docs. The Center's research program incorporates several projects on population/environment relations, including land use and population dynamics in Southeast Asia, environmental impact on obesity in the U.S., demographic influences of pastoral land use in Tanzania, and the environmental impact of colonist and indigenous land use in Amazonian Ecuador.

The Center for Environmental Health and Susceptibility develops knowledge concerning how individual and group susceptibilities interact with environmental and occupational factors to cause disease, fosters collaborations between Center scientists and community groups, educates the public on these issues, and provides information for public health programs and policy.

The Center for Environmental Medicine, Asthma, and Lung Biology of the School of Medicine is broadly concerned with environmental impacts on human health and on respiratory health in particular. Its research programs are closely related to those of U.S. EPA's Human Studies Division located on the UNC-Chapel Hill medical campus. It is closely affiliated with the Institute for the Environment's Center for Landscape Change and Health.

The Center for Sustainable Enterprise (CSE) at Kenan-Flagler Business School offers education programs, research and outreach to help companies and non-profit organizations grow and profit in non-traditional and emerging markets with economically, environmentally and socially sustainable strategies. The Kenan-Flagler Business School was recognized in Beyond Grey Pinstripes: Preparing MBAs for Social and Environmental Stewardship as the first and only business school to achieve excellence in all three categories of competitive strategy-Business School Innovation in Environmental Stewardship, Social Impact Management, and Sustainability. CSE is in close collaboration with the Institute for the Environment's Center for Sustainable Community Development.

The Center for Urban and Regional Studies (CURS) serves as a campus center for research on urban and regional affairs, examining a wide variety of issues and problems faced by the nation's cities and regions. It is the second oldest, university-based, urban research center in the country.

The Drinking Water Research Center coordinates research activities pertaining to all aspects of drinking water, provides technical assistance to potential users of this research, and fosters and facilitates collaboration with engineers, scientists, and policymakers in other institutions and agencies in the U.S. and abroad to address critical drinking water issues.

The Environmental Finance Center is dedicated to enhancing the ability of governments to provide environmental services in fair, effective and sustainable ways. It provides a bridge between students and faculty working principally on environmental financing, management and planning tools, and governments who use these tools for the public interest.

The Institute for Advanced Materials, Nanoscience and Technology is an interdisciplinary endeavor, coordinating research efforts across the internationally recognized strengths of UNC-Chapel Hill in polymer science, nanomaterials, and nanobiosciences - areas critical to our future economy. Faculty and Students of the IAM are currently drawn from the Curriculum on Applied and Materials Sciences (CAMS) and the Departments of Chemistry, Computer Science, Mathematics, Applied Mathematics, Physics and Astronomy, Pharmacology, Biomechanical Engineering, and Biochemistry and Biophysics. The Institute for Advanced Materials, Nanoscience and Technology collaborates with the Institute for the Environment in their joint Energy and Environment program.

The Institute of Government is a core component of the UNC School of Government. It was established in 1931 to provide educational, advisory, and research services for state and local governments. Today, the Institute of Government is the largest university-based local government training, advisory, and research organization in the United States, offering up to 200 classes, seminars, schools, and specialized conferences for more than 12,000 public officials each year. In addition, faculty members annually publish approximately 50 books, periodicals, and other reference works related to state and local government. Each day that the General Assembly is in session, the Institute's Daily Bulletin, available in electronic format, reports on the day's activities for members of the legislature and others who need to follow the course of legislation. The Institute of Government and School of Government collaborate closely with the Institute for the Environment and its Environmental Resource Program in providing environmental public service and engagement for the people of North Carolina.

The Institute of Marine Sciences conducts basic and applied research on important scientific questions related to the nature, use, development, protection, and enhancement of marine resources; develops and applies technologically-advanced approaches to field, laboratory, and analytical problems; communicates research results to professional and public audiences; and provides consultative assistance to facilitate the application of knowledge to practical problems. The Institute of Marine Sciences hosts the Institute for the Environment's Morehead City Field Site.

The Kenan Center for the Utilization of Carbon Dioxide in Manufacturing is dedicated to a sustainable vision of technological, scientific and educational advances in processing systems. The elucidation of the fundamental science and engineering principles that will make these possibilities become reality, in collaboration with our industrial partners, is the mission of the Kenan Center. The Kenan Center is comprised of chemists, chemical engineers, and materials scientists from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University. Currently more than 20 faculty and 40 students and post-doctoral associates participate in Kenan Center research. National Laboratory partners at Oak Ridge, Los Alamos, and Pacific Northwest allow use of their facilities for Kenan Center investigations, and industrial members provide financial support and guidance.

The NSF Science and Technology Center for Environmentally Responsible Solvents and Processes establishes the scientific fundamentals necessary to enable liquid and supercritical CO2 to replace aqueous and organic solvents in a large number of key processes in the manufacturing sector. This $40 million center has spawned successful pollution prevention technologies that are being commercialized for the production of Teflon by DuPont, in dry cleaning, and for the manufacture of computer chips and memory devices.

The North Carolina Botanical Garden is a regional center for research, conservation, and interpretation of plants, particularly those native to the southeastern United States, but also including those with special botanical and human interest. The University of North Carolina Herbarium, a unit of the Garden and the largest museum collection of plant specimens in the Southeast, is a fundamental resource for the study of plant identification, evolution and distribution, endangered species, and new weeds in North Carolina and surrounding states. The Garden protects Nature Preserves, including the Mason Farm Biological Reserve, holds the region's National Collection of Endangered Species as a last resort against extinction in the wild, and has programs in restoration, plant invasions, plant propagation, ecology, and public education.

The North Carolina Institute for Public Health (NCIPH) is the service and outreach arm of the School of Public Health, bringing the public health scholarship and practice communities together.

The UNC-Chapel Hill Superfund Basic Research Program studies the human health and environmental risks associated with hazardous waste sites, which will ultimately help devise strategies for remediating such sites in order to minimize public health concerns.

The Institute for the Environment also collaborates closely with two field research stations of the University of North Carolina - the Coastal Studies Institute and the Highlands Biological Station.

The Coastal Studies Institute (UNC-CSI), formed in 2003, is an inter-university research institute located in Manteo on Roanoke Island. It is the mission of the UNC Coastal Studies Institute to undertake research, offer educational opportunities, provide community outreach programs, and enhance communication among those concerned with the unique history, culture and environment of the maritime counties of North Carolina. UNC-CSI's research focuses on four main areas: Estuarine Ecology and Human Health, Estuarine and Coastal Processes, Coastal Sustainability and Maritime History. While the institute emphasizes northeastern North Carolina in its outreach and education programs, its research draws on the resources of the entire region and encompasses all of the mid-Atlantic and southeastern coast of the United States. CSI is a near-neighbor of the Institute for the Environment's Albemarle Ecological Field Site (AEFS) and offers internship opportunities to AEFS students.

The Highlands Biological Station, located in Highlands, North Carolina, was founded over 80 years ago to foster education and research focused on the rich natural heritage of the Highlands Plateau, while preserving and celebrating the integrity of the "biological crown of the southern Appalachian Mountains." The Highlands Biological Station hosts the Institute for the Environment's Highlands Field Site.