Franklin, who teaches ecology and biology at UNC, earned a bachelor’s degree in biology/conservation
management, a master’s degree in forest ecology and two doctorates—a PhD in plant
ecology from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale and a PhD in biology/forestry
from the University of Joensuu in Finland where he was a Fulbright Scholar. Before
coming to UNC he was an associate professor at the University of Memphis. In 2012
Franklin was named the College of Natural and Health Sciences Faculty Mentor of the
Year in Undergraduate Research. He explores numerous research topics in the classroom
and in the field.
“One of the major things I’m looking at is how aspen trees are doing as far as the
impact of fire and aspen’s ability to maintain its population in the mountains,” he
says.
He and his students have also looked at “mastication” (the process of grinding up
vegetation to reduce the amount of fire fuels in the forest) and its effect on ponderosa
pine; the deposition of volatile organic compounds on grasses near wells, and in turn
the effect of that deposition on cattle; and the impact the 2013 floods on plant communities.
Recently, Franklin and two of his students hiked up through a burned area in Rist
Canyon, outside LaPorte, Colorado, where they collected core samples from burned trees
in order to determine the age of the forest. “When we know what age the forest was
when a burn came through, we can relate that to response of the trees to the fire.”
Franklin explains that understanding how a forest is responding and how well it’s
recovering is important. “By using topography data to determine erosion, we can evaluate
the long term impacts of fire and decide if we need mitigations, like erosion control,”
he says. It’s knowledge Franklin can take into the classroom for discussion, deeper
understanding and critical thinking, and it’s that combination of teaching and research
that brought Franklin to UNC in 2008.
“I like the combination of teaching and research here. UNC holds teaching to a high
caliber and holds research quality to a high caliber. I love to work with students
and love to bring what we do with research into the classroom. It makes me a better
teacher.”
The mentoring relationship between faculty and students is part of the University’s
focus on the scholar teacher. “We have our faculty teach almost all upper division
labs. Because of the interaction with faculty there is a lot of research potential
for undergrads. There are very high quality faculty here doing great research and
teaching,” he says.
He points out that the combination of research and teaching is what makes UNC unique,
because faculty are not only experts in their field, they are also innovators in their
field who bring research from their field into the classroom and apply cutting edge
teaching methods. It’s what makes UNC unique, and aligns closely with his goals to
teach while pursuing research. “Philosophically,” he says, “I believe in the way UNC
does things.”