Two lecturers who are known for their dedication to students have been named recipients of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences awards for teaching excellence among lecturers. The award winners are Topher Gee, Department of Biology, who received the Full-time Lecturer Award for Teaching Excellence; and Carol Higham, Department of History, who received the Part-time Lecturer Award for Teaching Excellence.

A reception on Monday, April 29 honored Gee and Higham and the other nominees for the awards. Other nominees for the full-time lecturer award were Debbie Kilby Baker, communication studies; Pedram Leilabady, physics and optical science; Shep McKinley, history; Mary Michael, psychology; and Susan Michael, chemistry.

Other nominees for the part-time lecturer award were Sarah Minslow, English; Monica Rabinovich, chemistry; and Ellyn Ritterskamp, philosophy.

Department chairs and program directors in the college nominate lecturers for these annual awards. The selection committee comprises committee Chair Jamie Strickland, Department of Geography and Earth Sciences; Lawrence Calhoun, Department of Psychology; Isaac (Ike) Heard, Department of Geography and Earth Sciences; Harold Reiter, Mathematics and Statistics; and Joanne Robinson, Religious Studies.

About the honorees:

Topher Gee is the recipient of the College’s Full-Time Lecturer Award for Teaching Excellence. Gee has been a full-time lecturer in the Department of Biology since 2007. In addition to the undergraduate courses he teaches, he has taught Developmental Biology at the 4000/5000 level, as an elected associate member of the Biology Graduate Faculty.

He has focused on recruiting, retaining and graduating biology majors through enrichment and senior seminars and direct advising. He serves on Honor’s Research and Master’s Research committees, including that of a student who was one of five in North Carolina to win the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship.

He participates in campus and community outreach, such as with the Center for Teaching and Learning, Majors’ Day, the North Carolina Academy of Sciences, WFAE and community colleges. He led the department’s undergraduate committee and is part of program and curriculum reviews. In those roles, he has initiated the revamping of lab offerings and the development of a seminar to improve scientific reading and writing for newly declared majors. He received the 2011 “Building Educational Strengths and Talents, Outstanding Faculty Award” and was named a National Academies Education Fellow for 2012-2013. He also presented a paper at the Introductory Biology Project Meeting in 2012, which was invitation only.

Carol Higham is the recipient of the College’s Part-time Lecturer Award for Teaching Excellence. Carol is an adjunct instructor in the history department, from 2009 to today, and earlier from 2003 to 2006. She is an experienced teacher, having been an assistant professor at Texas A&M University. She is a superb instructor who connects extremely well with students and who teaches a variety of courses focused primarily on Native American history and the West.

One colleague who visited one of her classes noted that she had “created a very open and inviting learning environment” and that “the vast majority of students appear very motivated and eager to learn, especially so for an 8 a.m. class.”

She regularly receives high marks from students for her effectiveness and for the amount they have learned. In one methodology course that is required of all history majors, students learn how to “do history.” They learn how to research and write effectively, how to interpret primary documents, and how to understand historians’ arguments and develop their own. Carol received three perfect scores from students and an almost perfect score in the fourth class she taught.

She also is a scholar, with an active research agenda that enriches her teaching. She publishes regularly, including co-authorship of a textbook on frontier history. Her colleagues describe her as being “adept at challenging and connecting” with students.

About the full-time lecturers nominees:

Debbie Kilby Baker has been a lecturer in communication studies for 12 years. Her peers and students describe her as energetic, knowledgeable and personable, while also being demanding and challenging of her students. She weaves service in the community into her classes, which have assisted non-profits such as A Child’s Place, Second Harvest Food Bank and the Humane Society. She took the lead in creating the Communication Studies Student Association and developed a departmental Adjunct Faculty Handbook. She also has facilitated workshops with the Summer Diversity Institute, the Office of Disability Services and other efforts. Peers say she embodies the philosophy of teacher-citizen.

Pedram Leilabady has been on the faculty in the Department of Physics and Optical Science since 2004 and currently holds the rank of senior lecturer. He has led the departmental efforts on large course redesign, which has been implemented in all four of the department’s large introductory courses. He invested significant effort in developing on-line components and problem-solving exercises for these classes. Students have benefited from his efforts, as seen by the reduction in the percentage of D, F and W grades and improvement of learning outcomes. He also brings his technical expertise to the department, as someone who has through his career amassed over 75 technical publications and 11 patents.

Shep McKinley is a lecturer in history and has been at UNC Charlotte for 10 years. He has led in incorporating new technologies, developing on-line courses and working with the College of Education to meet the needs of prospective history teachers. He has stepped up in an advisor role, including coordinating the Patterson Prize for best undergraduate paper, running the History Honors Society and advising students with idiosyncratic forms and those assigned to a faculty member on leave. He was a founding member of the Charlotte Teachers Institute and a leading participant in the Teaching American History grant with Cleveland County Schools. He has published one co-authored book and is close to finishing another manuscript.

Mary Michael joined the Psychology Department in 2007, teaching some of the more demanding and intensive content courses. She has regularly expanded class sizes to accommodate student demand, while maintaining favorable evaluations. She mentors in research 6 to 9 undergraduates each year. Her active lab researches individual differences in cognitive processing, and her students regularly present at conferences and submit research for publication. She also has led the study abroad program to Kingston, England for two years, which has encouraged others to follow her lead. She serves on committees focused on issues such as curriculum and study abroad and has edited an undergraduate journal for three years.

Susan Michael has taught a variety of lecture and laboratory course, serving as a part-time lecturer from 1999 to 2007 and a full-time visiting lecturer the following year. When hired as a full-time lecturer in 2008, she immediately took on the role as coordinator of the introductory organic chemistry laboratories while continuing to teach. She updated the laboratory manuals and supervised the graduate students teaching the labs. Susan worked with other faculty in large course redesign of CHEM 1251, creating videos and quizzes to improve student learning and reduce the percentages of D, F, and W grades. She also participated in the Top 40 Freshman Success Academy and served as Advising Coordinator.

About the part-time lecturers nominees:

Sarah Minslow began teaching in the English Department as a part-time faculty member in 2011. She has quickly established herself as a versatile and highly professional faculty member who can teach a variety of English courses well. She also teaches for the Department of Global, International and Area Studies, focused on war, genocide and refugees as reflected in literature and film. She has drawn from her participation in the Silberman Seminar, sponsored by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. Sarah also has extended her involvement to the community, serving as a keynote speaker for a Charlotte Mecklenburg Library “Banned Books Week” event and a panelist during an event focused on strong women in literature, film and popular culture.

Monica Rabinovich has taught in the Chemistry Department since 1997. She has instructed labs for pre-nursing majors and for science, engineering and pre-health majors. She also has taken on responsibility for a course that prepares graduate students to teach introductory chemistry labs. In this role, she mentors the graduate assistants and deals with the management of the labs, including manuals, equipment, supplies and problems. The graduate students meet weekly to discuss the next week’s experiment, conduct it themselves and take turns presenting the pre-lab lectures, so she can advise them on improvements. Last fall, she oversaw 38 sections, affecting over 1,200 undergraduate students’ experiences.

Ellyn Ritterskamp has taught Introduction to Philosophy and Ethical issues in the Philosophy Department for 10 years. She balances her teaching with a full-time job with The Charlotte Observer and has several times stepped in to teach extra classes when other faculty could not. Her students praise her skillful use of class discussions, group work and presentations, use of videos and clear presentation. As one student said, “Class discussions are always interesting. When talking about any topic, she encourages all views and makes everyone feel as though their opinion matters.” Ellyn shows support for students in other ways as well, including the development and support of a scholarship for philosophy majors.

UNC Charlotte on Sunday, April 21 will host a free, public Science and Technology Expo on the lower campus mall, facing the Student Union. The expo, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., will feature a wide variety of activities for the science-curious of all ages, including hands-on educational presentations and fascinating displays developed by UNC Charlotte science faculty, engineering demonstrations, lab tours and tours of the UNC Charlotte Botanical Gardens.

Research Journeys Kicks Off Month of Events

Who’s afraid of the Higgs boson? Or metamaterials? Bioinformatics? Big bad data? Or dark energy? Chances are, you are. Modern science, both theoretical and applied, gives us amazing new views of our world and our universe, but, whenever we try to understand what the researchers have found, it seems that we can get really, really lost.

Maybe we just need someone who can help us navigate the new knowledge in a way that doesn’t require a doctorate in astrophysics to understand. A series of five free community talks, called “Research Journeys,” is sponsored by UNC Charlotte Research and Economic Development and the Charlotte Research Institute, with support from the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, its science departments and other colleges.

The topics range from exploring wild new discoveries in subatomic physics to looking at how governments use postage stamps to teach science; from using computer technology in preventing global flu outbreaks — or in conducting dazzlingly complicated experiments, to making science fictional invisibility cloaks a reality.

Sean Carroll Talk

Prominent in the series is a special guest lecture by California Institute of Technology theoretical physicist Sean Carroll, who will deliver a talk entitled “The Particle at the End of the Universe” on Wednesday April 10, at 7 p.m. in EPIC G256.

A respected and wide-ranging research scientist whose work includes both the fields of cosmology and particle physics, Carroll has also built a second career as an explainer and spokesman for science, particularly for modern physics. Carroll specializes in telling the story of the weirdest and most challenging areas of human knowledge. It is not out of order to compare him to the late astronomer Carl Sagan, though where Sagan’s challenge was to introduce the public to the “billions and billions” of stars in the known universe, Carroll has the unenviable task of helping non-scientists understand and appreciate new, otherworldly physics that includes such difficult concepts as the Higgs field, cosmic inflation, and “dark energy.”

Carroll’s talk at UNC Charlotte will be on the Higgs boson, the topic of his newest book on physics for popular audiences. Long theorized by contemporary physics, the Higgs boson was only recently proven to exist by experiments at the Large Hadron Collider, a 17-mile-long, $9 billion Swiss-French facility expressly built to find it.  The Higgs is quite literally the particle that puts the mass in matter – and that makes the universe (as we know it) possible.

About Carroll’s book on the Higgs, the actor and science show producer Morgan Freeman said: “Carroll tells the story of the particle that everyone has heard of but few of us actually understand. After you read his book — an enticing cocktail of personal anecdote, clever analogy, and a small dose of mind-bending theory — you will truly grasp why the Higgs boson has been sought after for so long by so many. Carroll is a believer in big science asking big questions and his beliefs are infectious and inspiring.”

In addition to “The Particle at the End of the Universe” (Dutton, 2012), Carroll is the author of a book about time and the beginning of the universe, “From Eternity to Here” (Dutton, 2010), two video lecture series on modern physics and dark matter/dark energy, and a very popular science blog. As a researcher, he has published more than 60 research articles in many of the top science journals. He is also the author of a textbook on General Relativity.

Carroll’s efforts to foster public engagement in science are impressive, but he is by no means the only active researcher willing to take time away from lab and grants to do outreach. In celebration of this year’s North Carolina Science Festival, four members of UNC Charlotte’s research faculty have also volunteered to do public presentations.

Daniel Rabinovich Talk

On Friday, April 5,  UNC Charlotte professor of chemistry Daniel Rabinovich will talk on “Hydrogen to Copernicium:  The World of Chemistry on Postage Stamps” at 3 p.m. in Grigg Hall 132. Rabinovich, an active researcher in inorganic chemistry, has developed a side fascination with the way stamps have been used as a vehicle for communicating the science of chemistry to the public, and has long edited a column for Chemistry International  on stamps and chemistry.

Rabinovich notes that a surprisingly large number of stamps have been issued to commemorate scientific discoveries or to honor well-known scientists in the chemical field.  His talk will feature postage stamps and other philatelic materials pertaining to the history of chemistry, the discovery and sources of the elements, chemical structures and formulas, laboratory equipment, biochemistry, and various aspects of the chemical industry — and show how science creeps into public awareness through unexpected means.

Mirsad Hadzikadic Talk

On Monday, April 8, software professor and former dean of UNC Charlotte’s College of Computing and Informatics Mirsad Hadzikadic will speak on “Learning How to do e-Science in a Virtual World” at 7 p.m. in Bioinformatics 105.

Hadzikadic, who is currently the director of the Complex Systems Institute, is developing an academic program at UNC Charlotte in doing eScience, an emerging discipline that is already having a major impact in numerous fields, from the social sciences through the life sciences and physical sciences. eScience’s basic premise is that in addition to the two accepted scientific inquiry methods —  theoretical/mathematical formulation and experimentation — computational simulation/modeling has become a third method for doing science.  eScience introduces the application of computational methods to scientific exploration and discovery.

Greg Gbur Talk

On Monday, April 15 associate professor of physics and optical science Greg Gbur will speak on ” How Not to Be Seen: The History and Science of Invisibility” at 7:30 p.m. in Bioinformatics 105.

Gbur is an active researcher in invisibility and other related areas in optics, but he is also, like Carroll, a prominent science blogger, and also the author of popular essays and books on science.  In addition to science, Gbur is also an authority on the history of science, and science/horror fiction, both of which, he argues, can give current researchers valuable perspective on their work.

He notes: “In the past few years, invisibility cloaks have moved from science fiction to an active field of scientific study.  Though we don’t have cloaks yet, there are a lot of fascinating developments in the science of invisibility.”  Professor Gbur will talk about both the history of invisibility in fiction and science as well as the most recent exciting developments.

Dan Janies Talk

Concluding the lecture series on Wednesday, April 17, Dan Janies, Carol Grotnes Belk Distinguished Professor of Bioinformatics and Genomics, will speak on “Weather Maps for Infectious Disease” at 7 p.m. in Grigg Hall 132.

Janies is the lead developer of the Supramap Project,  a software system that links enormous quantities of real-time genomic data on pathogens (such as influenza viruses) with geography to help epidemiologists combat disease epidemics. Traditionally, epidemiologists study the rise and fall in the number of cases of diseases that share symptoms.  “Now with genomic data and geographic information systems we can study the evolution and spread of specific bacteria and viruses that cause disease over space, time, and various hosts,” Janies says. The results are an interactive visualization akin to a weather map for infectious diseases.

In addition to the Research Journeys series, UNC Charlotte is also presenting a number of other North Carolina Science Festival events, including a Star Party on April 5 and a large Science and Technology Expo on April 21.

For a complete listing of events and other information, see http://ncsciencefestival.uncc.edu

Faculty Featured:

• David Goldfield, history, was quoted on Friday, March 29, 2013, in The Charlotte Observer, in “Confederate flag at old NC Capitol coming down.”
• Greg Gbur, physics, was a guest on Friday, March 29, 2013, on News14 to discuss science and the UNC Charlotte Science and Technology Expo.
• Todd Steck, biology, was a panelist on WFAE’s Charlotte Talks on Friday, March 29, 2013, on “Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria and Hospitals.”
• James Tabor, religious studies, had a column in The Huffington Post on Thursday, March 28, 2013 on “Weeping Through Easter: An Alternative Tradition.”
• Karen Cox, history, was quoted on Wednesday, March 27, 2013 in The San Jose Mercury in “Duck Dynasty”: why Is this show so popular?”
• Steven Rogelberg, organizational science, was featured on Monday, March 25, 2013 in Men’s Health News in “Your Worst Work Habit” about his study in the European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology.
• James Walsh, political science and public administration, was quoted on Sunday, March 10, 2012 in The Washington Post in “Most Americans approve of foreign drone strikes.”
• Gregory Weeks, political science and public administration, was quoted on Wednesday, March 6, 2013, on FOX NEWS.com in “Nations that rely on Chavez’s generous oil terms have much to lose if it slows to a trickle.”
• John Szmer, political science and public administration, was a panelist on Wednesday, March 6, 2013 on WFAE’s Charlotte Talks on “How We Choose Judges in North Carolina.”
• Gregory Weeks, political science and public administration, was quoted on Wednesday, March 6, 2013, by the Associated Press in “Venezuela petro-allies nervous over Chavez’s death.”
• Gregory Weeks, political science and public administration, was quoted on Tuesday, March 5, 2013 by The Seattle Times in “Venezuela’s polarizing president dominated its political life.”
• Gregory Weeks, political science and public administration, wrote an article that was published on Friday, March 1, 2013 in Foreign Policy, titled “A cautionary tale for election boycotts.”

Students Featured:

• Sarona Bedwan, an anthropology student, was featured in The Charlotte Observer South Charlotte News on Friday, March 1, 2013 in “Charlotte student determined to make the world better.”

Much like a phoenix rising from the ashes, the McMillan Greenhouse at UNC Charlotte’s Botanical Gardens has experienced a rebirth following a minor fire in April 2012.

“We’re really known for our orchids, and people love them,” said Paula Gross, assistant director of the Botanical Gardens, which is part of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences. “So when we had to rebuild our damaged room, we thought about how we could do even more to showcase orchids.”

John Denti built a display to illustrate how orchids grow in the wild. Clare Duschl-Hagenbuch, a Botanical Gardens donor, helped fund some of the changes to the Orchid Room in memory of her late son Douglas Duschl, who was an avid orchid enthusiast.

“Prior to the fire in the other greenhouse wing, we had already been considering changes to the conservatory – the room with the upstairs and downstairs – which is a favorite for many because of its jungle-like feel,” Gross said. “The conservatory was established in the late ’80s, and the soil hadn’t been changed out since.”

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In its first poster competition in optics and photonics, the SPIE/OSA Student Chapter at UNC Charlotte showcased students’ research in mid-January. The students prepared and presented posters. SPIE is an international society advancing an interdisciplinary approach to the science and application of light. The mission of the Optical Society (OSA) is to promote the generation, application and archiving of knowledge in optics and photonics and to disseminate this knowledge worldwide.

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The UNC Charlotte campus and broader community celebrated the accomplishments of mathematics professor Harold Reiter, who recently was honored with the Award for Excellence in Public Service from the UNC Board of Governors. An afternoon reception to mark the distinction was held on Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2013 in Robinson Hall.

Speakers included Board of Governers’ member John Fennebresque, UNC Charlotte Chancellor Philip L. Dubois and Nancy A. Gutierrez, dean of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences at UNC Charlotte. A video on Reiter was shown during the reception and can be viewed on UNC TV.

The Board of Governors established the award in 2007 to encourage, identify, recognize, and reward distinguished public service and outreach by faculty across the University. The 2012 award carries a $7,500 cash prize and was presented to Reiter in October by UNC President Tom Ross and Public Service Award Committee member Ed McMahan of Charlotte.

“When UNC Charlotte was named a community engaged university by the Carnegie Foundation, the work of faculty like Harold Reiter was the reason why,” said Dr. Joan Lorden, UNC Charlotte Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs. “His dedication and creativity in fostering a love of mathematics in children in our community and across the state is unparalleled. We are proud that Harold is the second member of the UNC Charlotte College of Liberal Arts & Sciences to receive this honor.” Dr. James Cook, psychology, received the award in 2009.

Reiter joined the UNC Charlotte faculty in 1972. Over the past 40 years, he has made it his personal mission to enhance and advance the field of mathematics education. Instead of limiting his efforts to teaching at the college level, he has been deeply involved as a community volunteer in providing math enrichment opportunities for gifted children of all ages.

“Harold Reiter inspires as a faculty member who understands and embraces the intersecting mission of teaching, service and research,” Gutierrez said.

“He has balanced and blended these roles in a manner that shows others how we can have even greater impact than we might first envision,” she said. “As Harold says, university faculty members may be uniquely qualified to help studentsbroaden and deepen their development in mathematics – and, I would say, in other areas. Harold makes those vital connections between research and practice. Harold also shows us that working together across institutional lines in new and creative ways is essential.”

Reiter has tutored and mentored dozens of youngsters exceptionally gifted in mathematics and opened the door for them to be able to enroll in college-level courses at UNC Charlotte. Many have gone on to receive doctorates in mathematics and are on university faculties. He is described as a “problem solver” – someone who can present students with challenging problems that make them think, that motivate them to sharpen their math and problem-solving skills, and that build their confidence in their own abilities and potential.

Reiter has conducted countless workshops for mathematics competition coaches and K-12 mathematics teachers and attracted grant support to establish the CharlotteTeachers’ Circle. This group meets on a monthly basis and provides opportunities for teachers to work and learn together in a collaborative setting. He also conceived and created the Carolina Panthers Number Crunch math competition. Sponsored by the Carolina Panthers, the competition uses football variables to challenge students in physics, geometry, and other problem-solving disciplines. It is the only program of its kind in the National Football League.

Knowledge lives in research. As scholars pursue answers to big questions and researchers push the boundaries of what we already know, knowledge shifts, grows, and expands.

The vitality of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences is linked to the vitality of its faculty’s research. In fiscal year 2012, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences faculty obtained over one-fourth of the university’s total external funding dollars, resulting in funding for a wide array of research projects. An asterisk (*) in this list means the college member is a co-Principal Investigator, and the Principal Investigator is from outside the college.

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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.

Burson, 88, of Chatham, Mass., was born to Edith Longsworth Burson and Sherman L. Burson, in Pittsburgh, Pa. on Dec. 24,1923, the first of four children. The family moved to Massachusetts, where Burson graduated from Harwich High School. He was president of his high school class.

He attended the University of Alabama as a freshman, before returning to Pennsylvania, where he worked and attended the University of Pittsburgh. He was drafted during World War II, and he entered the Army Specialized Training Program, spending 11 months at Louisiana State University in the special program. He was posted to Europe just after V-E Day and spent over three years in the U.S. Army.

Following the war, he returned to the University of Pittsburgh, where he earned a bachelor’s degree and doctoral degree in chemistry. He joined Lederle Laboratories in Pearl River, NY as a research chemist.

Burson had long wanted to teach, and in 1957, Lederle Laboratories granted him a leave of absence to pursue an academic career. He joined Pfeiffer College in Misenheimer as the head of the chemistry department. At the urging of Bonnie Cone, he accepted a position at Charlotte College, just before the institution became the fourth campus of the University of North Carolina in 1965.

He was a chemistry professor and chair of the chemistry department, which achieved accreditation from the American Chemical Society under his leadership. UNC Charlotte’s first chancellor, Dean Colvard, appointed Burson acting dean of the College of Science and Mathematics in 1973.

In 1980, Chancellor E.K. Fretwell named him dean of the newly formed College of Arts and Sciences (now the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences), formed by the merger of the College of Science and Mathematics with the College of Humanities and the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences. He held this post until retiring in June 1985.

Burson received the NCNB (now Bank of America) Award for Teaching Excellence and was named the first Charles H. Stone Professor of Chemistry. In 1999, UNC Charlotte re-dedicated the Physical Sciences Building and named it in his honor. The building’s design won a national architectural award and was included in the American School and Universities Architectural Portfolio for 1986.

In 2001, Burson was among the people honored by the American Chemical Society for over 50 years of membership. Burson served as chairman of the Piedmont Chapter of the American Chemical Society, held positions of the Charlotte Friends Meeting, and was active in peace, social justice, and community activities. He served several terms on the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Community Relations Committee, appointed by the mayor and chairman of the Mecklenburg County Board of Commissioners.

Burson and his wife, Thea, moved back to Cape Cod in 1987, where he was active in organizations including Eldredge Library Book Group, Retired Men’s Association, Yarmouth Friends Meeting, United Nations Association, AARP, and an active memoirs group. He also served as a docent at the Chatham Railroad Museum and was appointed by the Governor of Massachusetts to serve on the Chatham Housing Authority.

He enjoyed sailing his boat, Mother Macree, and he traveled in many countries on five continents with his family and friends. He also traveled with Elderhostel, the UNC Charlotte Travel Seminar, Friendship Force and Servas. The Bursons hosted numerous Servas and Friendship Force visitors in their home.

Burson used his substantial gifts to improve the lives of others. He dazzled and entertained with his intellect and wit, and led and mentored with compassion. While he dealt with Parkinson’s disease and other issues in later life, his fortitude, perseverance, kindness and humor never wavered.

“Sherman was the finest man I ever met. It was a privilege to know him,” said Emeritus Professor Thomas D. Walsh.

Burson is survived by his wife of 68 years, Theodora Burson; his four children, Valerie Burson (David Aldridge) of Houston, Texas; Laurie Gates (Mark Massoni) of South Chatham; Sherrie Burson (Robert Ralls) of McLean, Va.; and Sherman “Shan” L. Burson III (Linda Franklin) of Moose, Wyo. He also is survived by his four grandchildren: Serj Gates, Brittany and Lindsey Aldridge, and Austin Ralls; his sister, Shirley Hauck of Gibsonia, Pa.; and brother, Bill Burson of Farmington, N.M.

Donations may be sent to the Yarmouth Friends Meeting, 58 North Main Street, South Yarmouth, MA 02644 or to a charity of the donor’s choice. A memorial service will be held on December 10 at 11 AM at the Yarmouth Friends Meeting, 58 North Main Street, South Yarmouth, MA 02644.

UNC Charlotte’s Stanislav (Stas) A. Molchanov, a faculty member in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, is among the mathematicians who have been named to the 2013 prestigious inaugural class of American Mathematical Society Fellows.

“We are very proud of this recognition honoring Dr. Molchanov’s outstanding scholarship and position as a noted researcher in mathematics,” said Nancy A. Gutierrez, dean of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences at UNC Charlotte.

“Dr. Molchanov has contributed significantly to the discipline, particularly in probability and stochastic processes,” Gutierrez said. “His scholarly output is prolific, with hundreds of publications and dozens of presentations worldwide.” He has made presentations at academic conferences in Russia, Germany, Japan, Canada, Israel and other countries, and also has been a visiting faculty member in many countries, she said.

“In addition to the impact of his research, his energy and enthusiasm have long inspired his students,” she said. “Throughout his career, he has supervised over 100 master’s degree students and over 50 students who have received their doctoral degrees, including close to a dozen at UNC Charlotte.”

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In support of alumna Jessica Bongiovanni, who three months ago learned that she has a rare form of bone cancer, the Association of Chemistry Graduate Students is hosting a pie-throwing fundraiser – the “Pie Your Chemistry Professor or Lab TA” event – in the West Quad area on Tuesday, Oct. 23, from 12:30 to 3:30 PM.

Bongiovanni, who is 25, has osteosarcoma, an aggressive form of cancer which affects about 400 people a year across the United States. She learned of her cancer just ten weeks before her wedding, which has been postponed. She has been undergoing intense chemotherapy and her right leg has been amputated.

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