History

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was the nation’s first state university to open its doors and the only public university to award degrees in the 18th century.

Authorized by the N.C. Constitution in 1776, the university was chartered by the N.C. General Assembly Dec. 11, 1789, the same year George Washington first was inaugurated as president.

The cornerstone was laid for Old East, the nation’s first state university building, Oct. 12, 1793. Hinton James, the first student, arrived from Wilmington, N.C., Feb. 12, 1795.

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Recent freshman classes at Carolina have set new standards of excellence as measured by the rigorous coursework students have taken in high school, as well as their grades and SAT scores. The incoming freshmen of 2003 are continuing that trend. Besides setting a new record for high school preparation, the newest class will become the very best group of first-year students Carolina has ever admitted.

UNC students have a long tradition of outstanding achievement. In December 2002, senior Morehead Scholar Karine Dubè of Canada was chosen for a Rhodes Scholarship, becoming the 36th UNC student to be so honored since 1902 and the 13th UNC winner since 1980. Carolina ranks second among public universities for the number of Rhodes Scholars produced.

In all, 11 Carolina undergraduates won prestigious national and international scholarships in 2002-03: one Rhodes, one Truman, one Luce, one Churchill, one Udall, three Goldwaters, two Cookes and one Rieser. Besides Dube, those outstanding student leaders honored were:

The newest Tar Heels entering Carolina this fall will include 14 Robertson Scholars. Along with 18 others who will matriculate at Duke University, they are part of the third class of this unique scholarship program, created by a $24 million gift from Julian and Josie Robertson. The full-tuition scholarship will allow each student to spend a semester in residence at the other campus. The scholarships bring together two of the nation's finest universities. The Robertson program also fosters enhanced collaboration between both campuses.

Carolina's freshman class also will include 40 new Morehead Scholars: 23 of North Carolina's most dynamic young leaders, 12 from 8 states across the U.S., two from Great Britain and three from Canada. Among the largest and most competitive scholarships at U.S. colleges and universities, the Morehead Awards cover all expenses for four years of undergraduate study, including summer enrichment experiences. The program, now more than a half-century old, is modeled after the Rhodes Scholarships to Oxford University in England

Professor Oliver Smithies was a recipient of the 2001 Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research, the nation's most distinguished honor for outstanding contributions to basic medical research. The Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation presented the award. Smithies, excellence professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, shared the honor with two other scientists for their pioneering work using mouse embryonic stem cells to create animals models of human disease. The Lasker Awards have often been called "America's Nobels," and more than 60 researchers who won a Lasker went on to receive the Nobel Prize.

Carolina's most recent member of the prestigious National Academy of Science is Dr. Richard V. Wolfenden, Alumni Distinguished Professor of chemistry, biochemistry and physics. He studies enzyme mechanisms and water affinities of biological compounds. His work helped lead to the development of a category of drugs known as ACE inhibitors, used to treat hypertension.

Carolina now has 10 faculty members in the prestigious National Academy of Sciences, along with five members of the National Academy of Engineering, 23 members of the academy's Institute of Medicine and 25 members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Recent Carolina additions to the Institute of Medicine are Dr. Luis A. Diaz, C.E. Wheeler Jr. distinguished professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine; and Sheila T. Leatherman, an adjunct professor in the UNC School of Public Health's department of health policy and administration.

Two faculty members and Carolina alumnus C.D. (Dick) Spangler Jr. also were recently elected fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in recognition of "preeminent contributions" in their fields. Faculty fellows, honored for their contributions in the humanities and arts, were Drs. Thomas E. Hill Jr., Kenan professor, philosophy, and Alan R. Shapiro, William Rand Kenan Jr. Distinguished professor, English. Spangler was recognized for business, corporate and philanthropic leadership.

Dr. Jacquelyn Dowd Hall, Julia Cherry Professor of history and director of the Southern Oral History Program, is serving as president of the 9,000-member Organization of American Historians in 2003-2004. She also has been president of the Southern Historical Association. Hall also won a 1999 National Humanities Medal for helping preserve access to resources in the humanities. The Southern Oral History Program, which she founded, is part of Carolina's Center for the Study of the American South.

Pediatrics Professor Mel Levine has pioneered efforts to understand why children learn differently. All Kinds of Minds, a non-profit institute affiliated with UNC and founded by Levine, to promote greater awareness of learning differences nationally.

Dr. Joel Tepper, a physician and researcher at the School of Medicine's Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, in 2002 became president of the world's largest radiation oncology society. The 7,000-member American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology works to improve and enhance the practice of radiation oncology in the United States and abroad

Attracting research funds from the federal government is among the major contributions the university makes to the North Carolina economy. A new ranking affirms that the Carolina faculty's ability to do just that places them among the nation's best. The university ranks 13th overall for total funding awarded by the National Institutes of Health in fiscal 2002 - a 12 percent increase. Carolina is the top public university in the South and one of only five Southern universities, public or private, cited in the NIH's top 20. NIH, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is the principal biomedical research arm of the federal government. NIH research institutes are fighting diseases including AIDS, alcoholism, arthritis, cancer, diabetes and stroke, as well as tackling health topics related to aging, women and children, drug abuse, the environment and rapidly emerging multidisciplinary fields such as genomics and proteomics.

UNC ranks third in federally financed research and development expenditures within the social sciences for fiscal year 2001, with a total of $18.1 million. Including the NSF and NIH (mostly) and other agencies, federal funding numbers for social sciences have increased about $3.4 million over fiscal year 2000, when UNC still ranked third in that category.

Carolina placed 17th in the National Science Foundation's most recent report on federal academic science and engineering obligations for fiscal 2001- advancing three spots from the fiscal 2000 funding totals. Overall, the university ranks as the top public university in the South and one of only two N.C. campuses featured in the top 20 for fiscal 2001, the latest year of funding in the NSF’s report on total federal academic science and engineering obligations released earlier this year.

UNC ranked third in the NSF's funding for social sciences research during fiscal 2001, the highest achieved by UNC in the various science and engineering fields included in the NSF's research and development expenditure tables. About half of UNC’s total fiscal 2001 federal social science funding was in the area of sociology, including research projects addressing aging, adolescent achievement and problem behaviors, and rural health, among others. The department of sociology is the leading department in the nation for such NSF funding.

Fiscal 2003 overall research funding at UNC topped the $537.4 million mark, contracts and grants awarded for research, teaching and public service -- up from $488.3 million in 2002.

Carolina has committed at least $245 million over the next decade to the emerging field of genome sciences. The campuswide initiative, which represents public and private investments, will allow Carolina to be a driving force in determining how the genomics revolution will change the way we treat human diseases, design drugs and grow crops. This collaborative effort includes construction of four new buildings to house genomics research, more than $50 million in recurring funds for 40 new faculty positions and a $25 million anonymous gift to create the Michael Hooker Center for Proteomics to study a specialized area of genetics. One result of the campuswide commitment to this initiative is the School of Public Health's selection by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to house one of the nation's three centers for excellence for genomics and public health. Cancer genetics will be a major force.

The department of psychiatry and the Neurodevelopmental Disorders Research Center have received a $3.5-million grant to study brain development in very young children with Fragile X Syndrome. The five-year grant is from the National Institute of Mental Health, a component of the National Institutes of Health. Fragile X Syndrome is the most common inherited cause of mental retardation. The study involves researchers from both UNC and Duke University, through the Duke-UNC Brain Imaging and Analysis Center, and represents a collaboration with researchers at Stanford University, who have been awarded an identical grant to conduct this joint study.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation chose the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Public Health to lead a multi-year, $16.5-million initiative to address these issues. Called Active Living by Design, this national program will establish innovative approaches to increase physical activity through community design, public policies and communications strategies that can become models for success nationwide.

UNC scientists are national leaders among those using sophisticated atomic-scale research techniques called nanotechnology, which may help guide efforts to manipulate viruses and DNA. Team members work with a device they invented called the nanoManipulator, which combines an atomic force microscope with a force-feedback virtual reality system.

Mark Sobsey in the School of Public Health's department of environmental engineering, specializes in research about waste treatment systems. He is looking into ways to recycle hog lagoon wastewater for fertilizer and other uses, while mitigating the public health risks. He and his graduate students work directly with a Johnston County, N.C., hog farmer to help find ways to safely use water from the hog lagoon as fertilizer for tomato plants, which are then sold commercially.

Carolina scientists are the first to successfully create a liquid form of DNA, the molecule that is the blueprint for development of all living organisms. The research team included chemistry professors H. Holden Thorp and Royce W. Murray and three graduate students. Researchers are unsure of the practical applications of liquid DNA but speculate that it will be useful both in understanding DNA better and in improving genetic engineering and microelectronic circuitry.

Applying their inventions and their know-how for economic growth, current and former UNC faculty, staff and students have helped create several new companies based in the Triangle. Such start-up companies include Hemocellular Therapeutics, which is expected to produce the first platelet-based therapeutic available to doctors for the immediate treatment of active bleeding. The new company has established an exclusive licensing agreement with Carolina to advance a decade of cutting-edge research in Chapel Hill and Greenville at East Carolina University.

Hemocellular is one of 22 new spin-off companies spawned by faculty research from 1997 to 2002. Fifteen launched in 2001-2002, more than twice as many in the four prior years. Examples of commercialization include therapeutic agents for Parkinson's disease, technologies for drug delivery to treat cancer, contrast media for medical imaging, industrial applications for carbon nanotubes, and gene therapy treatment for diseases like muscular dystrophy.

From the Ackland Art Museum to the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center to the North Carolina Botanical Garden, Carolina offers a vast array of educational and cultural opportunities. The Ackland exhibits from a permanent collection of more than 15,000 works of art, particularly rich in Old Master paintings and sculptures by artists including Degas, Rubens and Pisarro; Indian miniatures; Japanese paintings; and North Carolina folk art. Astronomy enthusiasts and schoolchildren from across North Carolina enjoy the Morehead Planetarium. Besides its displays of native and unusual plants and its nature trails, the Botanical Garden offers art exhibits, nature walks and courses on topics ranging from home gardening to botanical illustration.

Nobel laureate James Watson, who co-discovered the DNA double helix 50 years ago, visited Chapel Hill in May 2003 to help the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center premiere "DNA: The Secret of Life." Carolina was among the partners producing the film, which chronicles the discovery and delves into genomics. As worldwide distributor, the Morehead Center is offering the film to museums and science centers for showings.

Professional theater also has a permanent place at Carolina through the PlayMakers Repertory Company, which performs in the Paul Green Theatre. The Carolina Union Performing Arts Series brings national and international dance, theatre and musical performances to campus. Recent artists visiting UNC have included Bobby McFerrin, Stomp and Dance Theater of Harlem.

Construction is currently under way for a new building to house the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History, funded by private donations. It will house classrooms, seminar rooms, a gallery, dance studio and spaces for performances, lectures, meetings and offices. Now based in the Frank Porter Graham Student Union, the center is among the nation's leading centers for research, teaching, learning and public service related to black history and culture. The new building is scheduled to be completed in 2004.

UNC's public service programs reach every region of North Carolina, helping communities protect public health, improve schools and medical services, stimulate business, plan for growth, understand cultural heritage, and enrich the quality of people's daily lives. Launched in 1999, the Carolina Center for Public Service coordinates and catalyzes campus outreach activities around the state. Other mainstays of UNC's public service efforts include the Institute of Government, the nation's largest and most diversified university-based government training and research organization, and the N.C Area Health Education Centers (AHEC) Program, which is based at the School of Medicine and helps meet health-care needs statewide.

Destiny, Carolina's traveling science laboratory, takes the latest technology and teaching tools to North Carolina schools. The 40-foot bus - dubbed "The Best Thing in Science Education to Hit the Road" - is full of state-of-the-art equipment for wet laboratory experiments, Internet exploration and carefully honed curriculum materials. The project, supported by a grant from GlaxoSmithKline, is among the first of its kind nationwide. Destiny's key goal is to increase student access to modern-day science and information-technology learning, especially in underserved and rural areas. Since October 2000, Destiny has served 700 educators, 7,500 students through lab experiences aboard the bus, 250 schools, 90 school systems and 88 counties.

North Carolina's teachers are benefiting from the Learners' and Educators' Assistance and Resource Network of North Carolina (LEARN NC), a collaborative statewide network of teachers and partners devoted to improving student performance and enhancing teacher proficiencies by creating and sharing high-quality teaching and learning resources via the World Wide Web. LEARN NC, offered free through the UNC School of Education, provides curriculum and instructional tools aligned with the state's Standard Course of Study and a virtual classroom of online courses for K-12 students and teachers. LEARN NC has trained teachers and others in all 117 public school systems as well as charter schools, North Carolina's Catholic Diocese and the North Carolina Independent School Association.

With the N.C. Arts Council, the education school also helps public schools through the N.C. Curriculum, Music and Community Project, which uses traditional Tar Heel music to teach the Standard Course of Study in fourth-grade. That project resulted from another designed to foster public service, the Tar Heel Bus Tour. The tour takes new faculty on an educational tour of the state. Goals include encouraging new faculty to serve the public and conduct research to help address the state's needs. When the 1998 tour visited the Ole Time Fiddler's & Bluegrass Festival in Union Grove, School of Education Dean Madeleine Grumet hatched the idea of incorporating traditional music into the classroom.

WUNC-FM, the National Public Radio affiliate licensed to the university, operates a five-station radio network serving more than 230,000 weekly listeners from Greensboro to the Outer Banks. WUNC has the largest public radio news staff in North Carolina and produces public radio programs including "The State of Things" and "The People's Pharmacy." WUNC can be heard at 91.5 FM in the Triangle and Triad, at 90.9 FM in the Rocky Mount/Wilson/Greenville area, and at 90.5 and 90.9 along the Outer Banks

Since the 1940s, scientists at UNC's Institute of Marine Sciences in Morehead City have served North Carolina by addressing important questions related to the nature, use, development, protection and enhancement of coastal marine resources. Its work includes the Neuse River Monitoring and Modeling Project on the Neuse River, which has been designated as one of the nation's 20 most pollution-endangered rivers. Also, the institute is assessing long-term damage to the coastal ecosystem from Hurricane Floyd, which flooded eastern North Carolina in 1999.

Kenan Institute Charlotte, a joint venture between the Kenan-Flagler Business School and The Belk College of Business at UNC-Charlotte, works closely with government agencies, non-profit organizations and local and statewide partners to strengthen the Charlotte-area business climate. Services provided include research services, small business managerial and technical assistance, and workshops and training programs.