Bob Goldstein’s service spans the state

October 8, 2025

Goldstein uses a DIY microscope to observe the fibers of a yellow Post-it note at Hanes Art Center at UNC-Chapel Hill. Since 2014, Goldstein has traveled across North Carolina, showing teachers how to make microscopes for their students' use. (Johnny Andrews/UNC-Chapel Hill)

This year’s faculty service award winner equips elementary schools with DIY microscopes and mentors Covenant scholars.

If Edward Kidder Graham had met Bob Goldstein, he probably would have told him, “Job well done.”

At University Day in 1914, Carolina’s 10th president expressed his hope for making campus “co-extensive with the boundaries of the state.” That’s why the University’s faculty service award bears Graham’s name.

Goldstein is this year’s recipient. He’s a biology professor in his 26th year at Carolina. His lab conducts research on cells, development and how tardigrades, microscopic animals, survive extremely harsh conditions, information that could be valuable to human health.

But Goldstein received the service award for the way he’s put Graham’s hope into action across the Tar Heel State for over a decade.

Goldstein spends his time and money visiting elementary schools with large concentrations of economically disadvantaged students, leading workshops to show teachers how to assemble $15 smartphone DIY microscopes for their pupils’ use.

This scientific vocation has taken Goldstein to counties like Brunswick and Onslow on the coast to western North Carolina’s Swain and Avery counties and to schools in counties bordering South Carolina (Columbus) and Virginia (Person).

Samantha Carter-Palmer, a teacher at Wildwood Forest elementary in Raleigh, built the 1,000th microscope in Goldstein’s project. (Submitted photo)

Since the project began, 1,151 microscopes have been assembled, the 1,000th at Wildwood Forest Elementary in Raleigh last year and the latest few at Westwood and Mountain View elementaries in Ashe County in September.

With each one, from one state boundary to another, science comes into focus.

“My favorite story is when teachers tell me kids are bringing in stuff from recess or from home to look at that the teacher never told them to,” Goldstein said.

His microscope project has inspired similar efforts across the country, from California to Kentucky, and even internationally in El Salvador and Guatemala.

The technology is fairly simple. Inspired by Kenji Yoshino’s smartphone microscope design, Goldstein shows teachers how to assemble microscopes using plexiglass, adjustable wing nuts, wood and smartphone and tablet cameras.

Traditionally, using a microscope is a solo experience. But Goldstein’s DIY model allows for collaboration and shared amazement among students, who often gather to wonder at what previously went unseen.

“They’re exercising their ability to act like a scientist with nothing in the way,” Goldstein said.

While this might be Goldstein’s most far-reaching act of service, it isn’t the only one. He’s also a longtime mentor to Carolina Covenant scholars.

“I might cry” when talking about the financial aid package that allows students to graduate from Carolina debt-free while receiving a network of communal support, Goldstein said.

He considers Candice Williams ’06, ’21 (PhD), the Covenant’s director, to be his leading example of service at Carolina.

“UNC was way ahead of the game on this,” he said. “It’s been mimicked at other places, and I’m glad they were serving as a model.”

Goldstein mentors around 10 students at a time, some with similar biology pursuits and others with “distant” academic interests. Meetups for coffee are common, but he’s also there when “issues come up I can help with.”

Meeting these students’ families when they graduate is particularly meaningful for him. “It’s really nice to make that connection,” he said.

Goldstein said his microscope project is a great way to explore North Carolina and visit areas he may not have otherwise. (Johnny Andrews/UNC-Chapel Hill)

The Covenant is one of the main reasons Goldstein has remained at Carolina, where his wife, Jennifer, is a research associate professor in the UNC School of Medicine’s genetics department.

He also values the “wonderful” science community and the chance to collaborate with art professor Beth Grabowski on their interdepartmental Art & Science: Merging Printmaking and Biology course.

A self-described “tinkerer,” this longtime scientist has developed into an accomplished artist as well, frequently making art from his home studio and showing in galleries nationally.

Students in Goldstein and Grabowski’s printmaking course also build the DIY microscopes.

“I’m waiting for the day one of them says, ‘We had these in school,’” Goldstein said. “I’ll be like, ‘I’ve been to your school.’”