Alumni & Friends

The five inaugural recipients of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences (CLAS) Distinguished Leadership Awards have helped make the college strong, leaders say. Honorees are Twig Branch, Nancy A. Gutierrez, Margaret Kocherga, Boris “Bluz” Rogers and Shawn Long, who was honored posthumously.

Risk management and data analysis are critical life skills for Grayson Dill, ’11. Students, faculty and staff at UNC Charlotte have benefitted from Dill’s expertise and vision over the past months, as he brought risk management to life in his work as the inaugural mathematician-in-residence in Charlotte’s Department of Mathematics and Statistics.

Two College of Liberal Arts & Sciences students have received the first Harper-Thomas Legacy Endowment for Study Abroad awards, presented at an event at the Levine Museum of the New South hosted by the UNC Charlotte Black Alumni Chapter. The Harper-Thomas Legacy Endowment for Study Abroad honors College of Liberal Arts & Sciences emeritus professors Mary Harper and Herman Thomas and is a scholarship of the College.

UNC Charlotte’s Bank of America Alumni Network in December honored three distinguished individuals, including CLAS alumni, for their professional and community service achievements.

Distinguished College of Liberal Arts & Sciences alumni are among those honored in April by the UNC Charlotte Alumni Association for outstanding contributions to their professions, their communities and to the university.

As women and people of color strive to advance in scientific fields, UNC Charlotte alumna Sandra Orimilikwe hopes to inspire others with her experiences.

When Yogin Patel came to UNC Charlotte as an undergraduate biology honors student, he arrived with a mission – to work in a lab with practical implications for its research. Patel, who graduated with a bachelor’s degree in biology with honors in December of 2012, says he found that in the lab of Shan Yan, assistant professor in the Department of Biology.

Sherman L. Burson Jr., inaugural dean of UNC Charlotte’s then-College of Arts and Sciences, first chair of the Chemistry Department and the first Charles H. Stone Professor of Chemistry, passed away on December 3, 2012.