Academic Affairs

Potential faculty nominees for the 2019-20 O. Max Gardner Award are being sought. This award is given annually by the UNC Board of Governors to “that member of the faculty of the University of North Carolina who, during the current scholastic year, has made the greatest contribution to the welfare of the human race.”Nominees can be of any rank, “including instructors, engaged in teaching in any unit, institution or branch of service” in the UNC System. UNC Charlotte faculty members who have won the award include Pinku Mukherjee and Diane Browder. 

UNC Charlotte researchers have received two of 43 awards from the inaugural round of grants from the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Convergence Accelerator pilot. The new NSF initiative supports multidisciplinary research teams and lays the groundwork for public-private partnerships with Fortune 500 companies to apply Big Data to science and engineering, and create technologies that enhance the lives of American workers.  

After nine years as dean of the Belk College of Business at UNC Charlotte, Steven Ott has announced his intention to step down from his post on Oct. 15. Ott has served as the dean of Belk College since 2011.

As part of its ongoing efforts to increase degree completion, the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) has named UNC Charlotte among three finalists for its 2019 Degree Completion Award. This annual honor works to identify, recognize and reward institutions that employ innovative approaches to improve degree completion while ensuring educational quality.

Florence Martin is the inaugural recipient of the Thomas L. Reynolds Leadership Award for excellence in graduate program administration.She is a professor in Learning, Design and Technology, graduate program director of the Post-Master’s Certificate of University and College Teaching and program coordinator of the Ed.D. in Educational Leadership, Learning, Design and Technology.

The Center for Graduate Life is sponsoring “Hacking the Academic Job Market.” This one-hour webinar, followed by a question-and-answer period, is scheduled for 2:30 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 19, in the Cone University Center, Room 268.Karen Kelsky, of the acclaimed The Professor Is In website, will lead this webinar, which is open to all graduate and postdoctoral students, as part of the University’s observance of National Postdoc Appreciation Week.

Each fall, UNC Charlotte recognizes those faculty members who are exemplary educators through the University Teaching Excellence Awards. Jennifer Webb and Thomas Marshall are the 2019 recipients of the Bank of America Award for Teaching Excellence and the UNC Charlotte Award for Teaching Excellence, respectively.

Undersecretary for Science Paul Dabbar, an official with the U.S. Department of Energy, visited campus Thursday, Sept. 5, where he toured the University’s Energy Production and Infrastructure Center.

Doug Hague has been named interim executive director for UNC Charlotte’s Data Science Initiative (DSI), an interdisciplinary industry-university-state partnership that since 2015 has focused on preparing students and industry leaders to apply the power of data to solve problems in business and society.

UNC Charlotte’s International Festival enables the greater Charlotte community to experience cultural traditions and foods from around the world. New for this year’s 44th annual festival, Opera Carolina will perform, and the Charlotte Independence soccer team will give demonstrations.