Give to the Biology Department - UNC DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGY

The Department of Biology depends on the generous gifts of our friends, patrons, and alumni to ensure the margin of excellence we enjoy. Private gifts from generous donors help to sustain the Department’s mission of excellence in teaching, research, and service. Such gifts help to provide the best possible education for our undergraduate and graduate students, build a lively intellectual community, and support the cutting edge work of our faculty and researchers.

Online giving to the Department of Biology is easy and secure. Please choose where you would most like your generous gift to be used:

Unrestricted Fund

Gifts to this fund are used at the discretion of the Chair with the help of Associate Chairs and committees, and will be used to support initiatives, programs, events, and other instances that are not covered by state dollars.

Make an Unrestricted Gift

Jean DeSaix Excellence in Teaching Fund

This fund has been established to recognize one of our esteemed teaching colleagues and the students whose lives she has touched. The fund provides professional development awards for teaching faculty, as well as excellence awards to undergraduate and graduate students who support our teaching mission. Your generous gifts will contribute to these efforts, as well as to undergraduate research and interdisciplinary seed grants.

Give to the DeSaix Fund

Other Giving Opportunities

The Arts & Sciences Foundation also offers several other targeted giving opportunities within the Department of Biology.

This fund helps to support the Biology Graduate Student Association. The BGSA’s mission is to serve as a liaison between the graduate students, the Biology Department leadership, and the University administration to advocate for student interests, needs, and concerns, promote professional development, and maintain high academic integrity.

Give to the BGSA

This fund supports the Koeppe Undergraduate Research Symposium held in April of every year. Provides support when needed to allow for a reasonable amount of funds to prepare for the symposium.

Give to the Undergraduate Symposium

This fund, named in honor of Dr. Larry Gilbert, provides support to bring highly distinguished biologists to campus to present a seminar and to interact with our faculty, postdocs, and students.

Give to the Gilbert Fund

This fund provides opportunities to support undergraduate research in the form of research and travel stipends, or research supply allowances.

Give to the Lyerly Fund

For questions about creating scholarship and professorships, making stock or estate gifts, donating to specific programs, or suggestions on how you can support the Department of Biology, please contact:

Christina Burch
Associate Chair of Development
UNC Department of Biology
cburch@bio.unc.edu

Ronda J. Manuel
Associate Dean for Development
UNC Arts and Sciences Foundation
ronda.manuel@unc.edu

Donate by Mail

You may also make a donation by check. Please make the check payable to Arts and Sciences Foundation, Inc with DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGY – 101101 in the memo line and mail to:

Arts & Sciences Foundation
University of North Carolina Chapel Hill
523 E. Franklin Street
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-6115

Why I Donate

“It has been said that life takes you to unexpected places and love brings you home.” This quote epitomizes my journey since I graduated from UNC.

I am a patent litigation attorney in Washington, D.C. with nearly twenty years of experience. Ironically, I had no intentions of ever becoming an attorney—much less knew about patent law. I always thought I would pursue a traditional career in science, like medicine or working in a lab. As I made my way through UNC, however, I began to really enjoy the academic discourse in my social science classes and began to investigate alternative career paths, including patent law. Patent law is a multidisciplinary career bridging science, law, and business. Today, I’m still at the cutting edge of science; just not at the bench.

As I reflect on my journey, the foundational underpinning for me—both professionally and personally— has undoubtedly been my UNC experience. To this day, I draw not only from the many early-morning biology and chemistry lectures in Coker and Venable Halls, but also the social skills, independence, and responsibility I learned as an undergraduate student.

Personally, I was also fortunate to meet the love of my life while I was at UNC. Together, we now have two beautiful kids who have come with us to Chapel Hill on countless trips only to hear us fondly reminisce about our glory days. Indeed, it is this love for UNC that brings us back and keeps us connected.
– Dr. Aziz Burgy, UNC ’96