UNC ranks as a world leader in COVID-19 research – here’s why Posted May 24, 2020 If you’ve gotten the impression that North Carolina is a hotbed of research and development to combat the COVID-19 coronavirus, you are right. Nowhere is that more evident than at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, home to some of the top coronavirus experts in the world and the highest-ranked U.S. university for coronavirus research. (WRAL Tech Wire)