Museums

North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences

NC State and the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences seek to work together to advance scientific scholarship in an interdisciplinary fashion. The two institutions are a natural fit, as NC State is a premier R1 university, and the museum is the largest institution of its kind in the Southeastern U.S. and the state’s most visited museum.

NC State also has many valuable museums and collections on its own campus that are valuable for interdisciplinary scholars. These include:

NC State Insect Museum

This museum is integral to the university’s research on biodiversity and evolution. It is used in insect diversity labs and butterfly exhibits that aid in teaching at local schools. The insect collection is important for science and the university because experts believe 80 to 95 of the world’s insects have not been collected, described, and named. 

NC State Herbarium

The NC State Herbarium is committed to research, teaching, and extension service, and is used by faculty, students and visiting scientists. The herbarium also serves monographic and floristic research at similar institutions around the world. The herbarium consists of about 125,000 specimens.

Larry F. Grand Mycological Herbarium

The Dr. Larry F. Grand Mycological Herbarium is housed in the Department of Plant Pathology. Collections are maintained in 3419 Gardner Hall (563 square feet) in ten herbarium cabinets. An additional five cabinets are planned in the near future. An adjacent room (3416 Gardner Hall) houses a research technician and the departmental imaging facility. This facility contains laptop and desktop computers, two research microscopes (a Nikon SMZ-U stereo zoom and a Nikon Eclipse E600 compound microscope with bright field, phase and interference microscopy). Each microscope is equipped with a digital camera with hook-ups to either a desktop or laptop computer. A light stand with a dedicated digital camera is also housed in this room.