Natural Sciences & Mathematics - College of Arts and Sciences

View a list of departments in natural sciences & mathematics.

Logan Brackett holds a plaque awarded to him as the 2021-2022 Award in Management recipient.

Biology department’s Logan Brackett earns College’s 2021-2022 Award in Management

Logan Brackett received the 2021-2022 Award in Management in the College of Arts & Sciences for his outstanding accomplishments

From left, Sheila Kannappan and Mugdha Polimera.

Astronomers find hidden trove of massive black holes

Scientists at UNC-Chapel Hill, led by faculty-graduate student team Sheila Kannappan and Mugdha Polimera, have found a previously overlooked treasure trove of massive black holes in dwarf galaxies that offer a glimpse into the life story of the supermassive black hole at the center of our own Milky Way galaxy.

James W.C. White named College of Arts & Sciences dean

An experienced academic leader, James W.C. White brings more than 30 years of experience, a history of collaborative leadership and a commitment to preparing students for an evolving workforce.

Graduate student Liah McPherson has used drones to record the lives of dolphins and whales — and her time as an undergraduate researcher at UNC-Chapel Hill helped set her on her way. (photo courtesy of Liah McPherson)

Capturing the Lives of Sea Creatures

Liah McPherson records the lives of dolphins and whales — from Hawaiʻi to Antarctica. She’s now a master’s student at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa; she graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill in 2019 with a dual degree in biology and animal behavior and a minor in marine science.

Jared Richards holds a Eurypterus lacustris — a prehistoric, marine arthropod similar to a scorpion — specimen in the invertebrate paleontology collection at Harvard University's Museum of Comparative Zoology. (photo by Melissa Aja, Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University)

Bewitched by Invertebrates

Jared Richards studies bizarre and beautiful sea creatures over 480 million years old. At UNC, he studied quantitative biology, combining his love of science and statistics, as a Chancellor’s Science Scholar. He’s now a graduate student at Harvard University.

Carolina senior Shara He shows part of a data analysis group project she worked on this semester. She is one of the first students to graduate with a new minor in data science. (Jon Gardiner/UNC-Chapel Hill)

Data science minor graduates first students

More than 60 graduates of Carolina’s Class of 2022 will accept diplomas this weekend that include the innovative new data science minor introduced in the fall of 2021.

Thidar Aye -- in the lab -- smiles at the camera. (photo by Donn Young)

From Myanmar to Chapel Hill

Carolina Covenant Scholar Thidar Aye’s journey to Chapel Hill began in Myanmar. At UNC, she fell in love with research and hopes to one day enter a Ph.D. program in biology.