Rob Dunn introduces incoming students and their families to Wicked Problems, Wolfpack Solutions, a free interdisciplinary solutions course offered to all incoming first year and transfer students.  

Each year, the course focuses on a different problem - in 2020, just months into the COVID-19 pandemic, the topic was pandemics.

This podcast introduces the course and asks listeners to consider the vast expanse of the biological, and scientific unknown.  

Dr. Dunn is an ecologist and evolutionary biology in the Department of Applied Ecology at North Carolina State University. He studies the biology of daily life, whether that be the beneficial microbes on skin and how they defend us against pathogens, the biology of sourdough bread starters or the ways in which changing climate will shift the species to which we are exposed in our homes, offices and cities. He is the author of six books, most recently Never Home Home Alone, the story of the many thousands of species in our homes and their consequences.

The Wonder and Problems of the Biological Unknown (Rob Dunn)

Dr. Kevin Gross explores the concept of "spillover" - when a disease crosses from one species to another.  It is suspected that the particular coronavirus that causes COVID orginated in bats, and that the next big virus may be forming in a population of bats even today.

Dr. Gross uses math to investigate questions in ecology and evolution.  He is particularly understanding why populations of non-human species wax and wane through time, and in developing mathematical models that illuminate the forces that drive those fluctuations.  His past research has examined how populations of tropical coral reefs respond to changing environmental conditions, how plant species of conservation concern respond to management interventions, and how biological diversity is distributed across the globe.  Dr. Gross teaches in the Department of Statistics, and is affiliated with NCSU's Biomathematics Program and its Genetic Engineering and Society Center.

Pathogen Spillover and the Emergence of New Human Diseases (Kevin Gross)

Wicked Problems, Wolfpack Solutions

Related tracks