OCTOBER 2026
5 Cool Things
Charlotte Sweep. Championship in Sight.
01
Niner alum Layne Riggs ’24 did it again, winning the Oct. 9 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. His seventh victory of the season completed a Charlotte sweep and moved him within 17 points of the championship lead with four races to go.
02
Four Years. Top 100.
For the fourth consecutive year, UNC Charlotte ranks among the nation's top 100 public universities, reaching No. 87 nationally and No. 39 for in-state value. Another reason to be proud of the University — and the degree — we share.
$2.1 Million for Discovery.
03
Charlotte's Truman Lab secured a new $2.1 million National Institutes of Health grant to investigate how cells maintain healthy proteins, research that could help advance understanding of cancer and neurodegenerative diseases.
04
A Legacy Worth Celebrating.
Charlotte alumna and public servant Joyce Waddell ’73 was honored with a portrait unveiling at the student health and wellbeing center that bears her name, celebrating her lasting impact on the University and the Charlotte community.
65 Million Years in the Making.
05
Charlotte bioinformatics professor Laurel Yohe helped uncover the evolutionary origins of bats in a major study published in Nature. Analyzing genomes from 103 bat species and 44 fossils, researchers traced their history back 65 million years, revealing new insights into the evolution of flight and echolocation.