CHAPEL HILL – When Interim Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz looks at the stone walls that surround UNC Chapel Hill’s campus, he doesn’t see barriers.

He sees something easy to climb.

Sure, there are distinct disciplines at Carolina. But in those low stone walls, Guskiewicz says in the accompanying video, he also sees a symbol of the culture of collaboration at UNC Chapel Hill in solving some of the world’s great problems.

As an example, he points to the collaboration of three professors trying to break down the surfactant material that obstructs lung passages in cystic fibrosis patients: Professor of Medicine Dr. Richard Boucher, one of the nation’s leading researchers in cystic fibrosis; applied mathematician Dr. Greg Forest; and physicist Dr. Richard Superfine.

“So the physicist looks at the density of the surfactant, the mathematician works on putting together an algorithm about how we might begin to break it down, working with the clinical approach of Rick Boucher, the physician,” Guskiewicz says.

“We talk about ‘synergy unleashed’ here at Carolina – that’s one of the beauties of the place,” he says.

“And we talk about the low stone walls that surround our physical space of this beautiful campus not just describing our physical campus, but it also describes the culture of our campus and the way people work together.”