UNC environmental health sciences alum Clay Burgess dived deep into research during his two academic years at the Water Institute, with his involvement being his primary activity at Carolina outside of the classroom.

“It’s helped me feel more connected within Gillings,” Burgess said. “It’s helped me get to know the school better.”

He has primarily worked with Dr. Ryan Cronk and Dr. Michael Fisher on his honors thesis, which focuses on a systematic review of toxic metals literature. Through frequent meetings with faculty, Burgess has looked meticulously at his paper to perfect everything from style to references in the hopes of having it published in a peer-reviewed journal.

“The most important skill [I have learned] is academic writing and writing for peer-reviewed journals with the goal of getting work published,” Burgess said.

Burgess also honed his oral presentation skills in preparation for his thesis defense and learned more about digesting lengthy scientific work — his thesis ultimately incorporated 77 papers.

“For a systematic review, it’s all about reading and taking data from hundreds of papers,” he said. “[I had] to be able to read scientific literature and understand what they’re talking about and comprehending the data so that way I was able to use it in my paper.”

Overall, the Water Institute allowed Burgess to gain a greater understanding of the process behind research publication.

“It ties in with the academic skills I’ve developed,” he said. “It’s given me a glimpse into what a career in academia is like, what it’s like being a grad student or professor.”

Even with this insight, Burgess will be deferring his graduate school acceptance and has a job lined up in industry. He will work for AECOM in Arlington, Virginia as an environmental scientist.

“I enjoy the work I’ve done a lot but I’m excited to get started with a real job,” Burgess said. “I’m really hoping to do more water quality projects and that’s mainly because of the work I’ve done at the Water Institute. That’s really where I found out that water quality [is] my field of environmental work that I really like.”