Meet Our Students and Graduates
Current Students
Arima Claypool
UNC Class of 2012
Arima Claypool is an environmental studies major with an anthropology minor. She stays busy with three jobs while also attending a community college to earn a certificate in sustainable agriculture. She has traveled to Kenya and Tanzania to research bush encroachment and presented her group findings to a local community through a study abroad program. She recently received a Research Experience for Undergraduates through the National Science Foundation for entomology research with Texas A&M. Her ultimate goal is to understand the insects affecting crops to benefit her future agricultural career. Upon graduation she hopes to attend graduate school while also serving in the Peace Corps.
Amanda DelVecchia
UNC Class of 2012
Amanda DelVecchia is an environmental science major with an ecology concentration and a minor in biology. Her experiences at UNC include teaching a water and human rights course for Dr. Greg Gangi, assisting the Environmental Affairs Committee of student government, and working in Dr. Joel Kinsolver's lab studying ecology and evolution. As an undergraduate research assistant to IE Director Larry Band, DelVecchia has worked on hydrography and hydrology using GIS. She has taken field ecology courses at Flathead Lake Biological Station in Montana and served as a research technician for a salmon study on the Alaskan Tundra. She has been conducting independent research on carbon sequestration in the Ecuadorian mangroves this summer.
Ben Gist
UNC Class of 2012
Ben Gist was inspired by Professor Don Hornstein's course about environmental law and policy early in his career at UNC. Because of this course, Gist began pursuing opportunities related to environmental policy. He first worked with Professor Hornstein to examine petitions against the EPA's endangerment finding for carbon dioxide. The experience and skills Gist gained through his internship's relevance and immediacy allowed him to be very competitive for his next internship in Hawaii. Gist had a ten week internship through NOAA's Hollings Scholarship Program. He worked with NOAA's Pacific Marine Fisheries policy department and compiled a report on human dimensions of pacific fisheries.
Ashley Mui
UNC Class of 2012
As an environmental science major, Ashley Mui studied drinking water treatment efficacy at the UNC School of Global Public Health, where she worked closely with faculty and graduate students. In the Research Experiences for Undergraduates program, she completed a research project on the effects of nutrient enrichment in invertebrate ecology, the results of which she presented at Woods Hole's Marine Biological Laboratory. As her focus shifted toward her energy concentration, she studied methods to determine offshore wind energy potential in the Developing Energy Leaders Through Action internship program. Mui played a role in changing UNC's energy usage patterns through the Renewable Energy Special Projects Committee, which funds renewable energy and energy efficiency projects on campus. During her senior year she will be studying at the IE's Thailand Field Site, where she will conduct her Capstone research project in the field of renewable energy.
Sean Murphy
UNC Class of 2012
A rising senior studying environmental science and geology, Sean Murphy took advantage of programs offered by the IE. He first got involved in campus renewable energy and energy efficiency projects through the Renewable Energy Special Projects Committee. Through this he learned to identify, plan and implement sustainability projects working with advisors that helped prepare him for his career. In summer 2010, he traveled to Alaska and Iceland at the Burch Honors Field Research Seminar, where he learned about global climate change and renewable energy resources. At the Highlands Field Site through the Developing Energy Leaders Through Action internship, he conducted an energy assessment, implemented sustainability projects, and made recommendations for future clean energy projects.
Barbara Zemskova
UNC Class of 2012
Barbara Zemskova is an environmental science and applied mathematics double major. In her time at UNC, she has modeled dam operations with the City University of New York, worked with remote sensing images to determine river characteristics with faculty at UNC, and conducted water sample filtering in Dr. Martin Doyle's lab. She was vice president of Epsilon Eta, an environmental honors fraternity on campus. Zemskova has taken full advantage of the IE's opportunities for undergraduate students to study abroad; she has studied Japanese society, language and sustainable development in Tokyo. Prior to this she studied lake and stream ecology through the University of Montana at the Flathead Lake Biological Field Station. Most recently, Zemskova was offered a position in the Research Experience for Undergraduates program at the University of Buffalo, where she will work on phytoremediation barriers for groundwater-surface water exchange of pollutants. Zemskova is a 2011 Goldwater Scholarship winner.
Shampa Panda
UNC Class of 2013
Shampa Panda is an environmental health science major who has done extensive undergraduate research work. With the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health , Panda manages data related to the socioeconomic and health impacts of forestry in Uganda. She also is working with the Marine Sciences Department to study environmental conditions that lead to harmful algal blooms. Prior to her current projects, Panda worked with the Gillings School of Global Public Health to develop and implement a low cost water quality test for the United States Agency for International Development. In the summer of 2011, she was a participant in CSUR (Calder Summer Undergraduate Research program) after winning a REU (Research Experience for Undergraduates) summer research fellowhip to conduct research at the Louis Calder Biological Field Station in Armonk, NY. During the 10-week program, she worked with mentors to develop an independent research project entitled "Nutrient Dynamics and Primary Productivity in a Biomanipulated Eutrophic Lake".
Alex Snedeker
UNC Class of 2013
Alex Snedeker is an environmental science major with a concentration in environmental decision making. She is also working towards a minor in marine science. A National Merit Scholar, Snedeker has been awarded the Mary and Watts Hill, Jr. Award from the IE. In fall of 2010, she spent the semester at the Morehead City Field Site. The following spring she held an internship with the UNC Sustainability Office working on education. Snedeker spent the summer of 2011 under the Research Experience for Undergraduates program at the University of Texas Marine Science Institute.
Melissa Wrzesien
UNC Class of 2013
Melissa is a double-major in Environmental Science and Applied Mathematics. During the summer of 2010, she studied the causes of climate change and renewable resources in Alaska and Iceland. This helped develop her interest in the relationship and interactions between climate change and the hydrosphere. Melissa is currently working in the Math Department with Dr. Peter Mucha to analyze the network of global surface air temperatures, which is funded by a Summer Undergraduates Research Fellowship Grant. Starting in the fall of 2011, she plans to work in Dr. Erika Wise's dendrochronology lab.
Patrick Clay
UNC Class of 2014
Patrick Clay is an environmental science major with a concentration in ecology and a minor in biology. During his time at UNC, he has been employed as a research assistant in stream ecology. This experience led him to Italy, Germany, Hungary, Serbia and the mountains of NC to study food web subsidies from river to riparian ecosystems. Since then he earned a SURF grant, which will allow him to return to Italy to conduct his own research on the effects of tributary junctions on stream biodiversity. He is a member and outreach chair of Epsilon ETA, an environmental honors fraternity. He is also involved with UNITAS at UNC, a living-learning community.
Stephanie Tolar
UNC Class of 2014
"The UNC Institute for the Environment has been instrumental in shaping my college experience, my major, and my career. It is a large part of why I am proud to call myself a UNC student."
"The Institute for the Environment's strong and comprehensive environmental program was one of the main reasons I decided to attend UNC."
Stephanie Tolar is a Johnston Scholar, a Winston Scholar and a member of the honors program. She has studied field ecology at Flathead Lake Biological Station in Montana and has already enjoyed several interdisciplinary and engaging courses within her environmental science major. With her IE faculty mentor, Tolar has developed a research project to examine the patterns of succession and response to disturbance in a deciduous forest. She has also studied at the IE's Galapagos Field Program in Ecuador this summer.
Alumni
Bill Bobbitt
Class of 2011
"I can without a doubt say that I would not be prepared for this next step without the education I have received, both in and out of the classroom, as an Environmental Science major at UNC."
In Bill Bobbit's first year as an environmental science major, he interned with Focus the Nation, where he organized the school's first climate change teach-in. Later that year he worked with a doctoral student to facilitate LEED certification for a restaurant in Durham. In his time as a student he worked as a sustainability consultant for an eco-resort in Costa Rica, studied energy policy at the IE field site in Cambridge, England, and co-chaired the Environmental Affairs Committee of student government. After being awarded with a CGI International Internship, Bobbitt studied in Shanghai, China with the Joint US-China Collaboration on Clean Energy. After returning to campus, he continued to work with campus energy issues including working with the sustainability office, researching with Thomas Meyer in his solar fuels chemistry lab and organizing a sustainable food movement, Farm to Fork.
Morgan Edwards
Class of 2010
"I firmly believe that my achievements, both at UNC and beyond, are due to the strong support system that is the Institute for the Environment and its faculty and staff."
"The ability of the Environmental Studies program to prepare non-engineering students to compete in top engineering programs is very unique, and one of its many strengths."
"My interdisciplinary background and strong research record, both supported by the Institute for the Environment, set me apart from other students with similar disciplinary qualifications and GRE scores."
Morgan Edwards was an environmental science major with an energy concentration and graduated in 2010 with the highest honors and highest distinction. She also earned a second bachelor of science in economics with a minor in physics. While studying at UNC she conducted extensive research related to improving energy efficiency at home and across the world. As a paid research team member with Improving Energy Efficiency in the US and Russia, Edwards worked toward developing a sustained cooperative program on energy efficiency for the Higher School of Economics in Russia and UNC. In Thailand, Edwards researched shared profit building-integrated photovoltaic systems. Her project provided a technical, environmental and economic assessment of building-integrated photovoltaic installations on residential housing in Bangkok, Thailand. Furthermore, through her honors thesis, she explored local variables in energy efficiency policy assessments. Her work included developing recommendations for future policies and metrics and identifying state energy efficiency trends. She now attends MIT after receiving a Presidential Fellowship.
Tyler Evans
Class of 2011
Tyler Evans was an environmental science major with a concentration in earth system sciences and a minor in marine science. He was involved in the Sierra Club and held part-time jobs outside the university. In the summer of 2010, Evans worked at the Flathead Lake Biological Station in Montana, where he learned about field methods, data collection and ecology. He has enrolled at the University of South Carolina to pursue a graduate degree with research focusing on coastal hydrogeology or coastal fluvial geomorphology and fluid dynamics.
Noah Kittner
Class of 2011
Noah Kittner majored in environmental science with a double minor in mathematics and urban planning. After his freshman year he studied ecology at Flathead Lake Biological Station in Montana. This work led him to UNC's plant ecology lab, where he was a research assistant for the rest of his time at UNC. At the IE's field site in Thailand, he conducted research on the feasibility of solar electricity in Thailand. This work became his honors thesis. In spring of 2010 he began a research project led by the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University, the Eepartment of Forestry at NC State University, and UNC. This project evaluated the UN-REDD program to mitigate climate change and deforestation. His work continued under the direction of Dr. Pam Jagger and took him to Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda. He served as a research intern for the International Forest Resources and Institutions group, where he reconciled deforestation in the context of poverty and rural livelihoods. Kittner has also served as a Developing Energy Leaders through Action intern with UNC Energy Management. Since graduation, he has been studying solar energy in Thailand on a Fulbright Scholarship.
Andrew Roe
Class of 2006
Andrew Roe was an environmental science major who enjoyed the opportunities to study at the Highlands Field Site and the Summer Burch Program in the Sierras. Since then, he has worked in tropical Peru, in Washington at the Olympic National Park, and in Asheville with The Nature Conservancy. He received a Master's degree from Cornell University where he studied the decision-making processes of private forest owners in New York. He plans to do wildlife research in western Uganda next year while starting a doctorate in the Forest and Wildlife Ecology Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Matt Scruggs
Class of 2011
"Carolina's environmental advisors promote experiential education as acritical component of undergraduate transformation. It has been invaluable for developing my skills and career interests."
Matt Scruggs was an environmental science major whose time at UNC was filled with valuable experiences. With a Developing Energy Leaders Through Action internship sponsored by the State Energy Office, Scruggs authored software that allows local businesses to compare emissions from business operations against those from traditionally fueled transportation businesses. The Sustainable Triangle Field Site, part of the IE, was home for invaluable work experience for Scruggs. He worked with the Town of Carrboro's GIS Specialist, producing a high-quality topographic base map for the town. In other work in the Triangle, as a member of a Capstone team, Scruggs helped produce a baseline greenhouse gas emissions inventory for the town. This project was presented by his team to the Carrboro Board of Aldermen and became a useful tool for the town's sustainability initiative and a foundation for future inventory work.
Lauren Tuttle
Class of 2009
Since graduation, Lauren Tuttle has worked with the EPA in Research Triangle Park. At the EPA's National Center for Environmental Assessment, Tuttle has strengthened her research skills and professional work experiences. She plans to attend the University of Texas at Austin to pursue a degree in community and regional planning. She will focus on environmental planning and watershed management.