Harold Reiter, a professor in the Department of Mathematics & Statistics in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, on Oct. 11, 2012 was presented with the Award for Excellence in Public Service from the Board of Governors of the University of North Carolina system.

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

“Dr. Reiter has transformed the lives of hundreds of pre-college students,” said Nancy A. Gutierrez, dean of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences. “He helps students excel in math and critical thinking, and he gives them self-confidence and pride in their abilities, which is the foundation for future success. These students are better prepared for all kinds of life challenges, including the challenges they meet in their math classes.”

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As part of the inaugural Charlotte Research Scholars program, students from the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences and other UNC Charlotte colleges spent their summers alongside faculty conducting original and cutting-edge research.

The program provided summer research opportunities to 50 undergraduate students, of which 31 are majors in disciplines in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences. Of the 42 faculty members who served as advisors for the students’ research, 25 are members of the college’s faculty, with 13 of the 21 departments that participated coming from the college.

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Five College of Liberal Arts & Sciences students were among the nine students named “Best of the Best,” in April for extraordinary contributions to UNC Charlotte through academic and co-curricular pursuits. The Center for Leadership Development coordinated the awards.

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CanDiag Inc., founded by UNC Charlotte researcher Pinku Mukherjee, was selected the grand prize winner of the Charlotte Venture Challenge. The company has developed a novel technology that accurately detects early breast cancer.

Winning the grand prize of a $50,000 convertible-debt note from Vaterra Capital, would “pave the path for further clinical validation and regulatory approval to offer women an early detection breast cancer blood test,” Mukherjee said. “The anticipated impacts are greater peace of mind to women from a more accurate test and improved survival with early detection.” Health care costs should be lowered due to the reduction of expensive testing, she said.

Mukherjee is Irwin Belk Distinguished Scholar of Cancer Research at UNC Charlotte.  She is a faculty member in the Department of Biology in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences.

Eighteen finalists competed for the grand prize. Winners of each Charlotte Venture Challenge category received $10,000.  They are InfoSense Inc. from Charlotte in the new energy and high tech category; Deal Cloud, a Charlotte-based entry in the information technology and informatics category; Asheville’s Mobile Potential in the consumer products and services category; and Qualiber Inc. from Chapel Hill in the life sciences and biotech category. Instruct Health from Queens University won the student category, and Bamboo Apparel of High Point topped the social enterprise category, which was presented in partnership with Queen City Forward.

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Casey Rimland, a biology and psychology honors undergraduate in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences at UNC Charlotte, recently received an eight-year scholarship through the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Oxford Cambridge Scholars Program.

Rimland, a Charlotte native who is graduating this May, will pursue a combined medical/doctorate degree through the NIH Oxford Cambridge program; she is one of only four individuals in the country accepted for that degree option this year.

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New research shows it may be no accident when doctors observe how patients suffering from both breast cancer and arthritis seem to have more aggressive cancer. However, the new-found interaction between the two diseases may also suggest a possible treatment.

A potential relationship between metastatic breast cancer and autoimmune arthritis, as suggested by past epidemiological studies, has led researchers from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte to perform a series of mouse model experiments that appear to confirm the connection.

“Epidemiological studies have implied that breast cancer survival is significantly lower in patients who also had autoimmune arthritis,” noted Pinku Mukherjee, Irwin Belk Distinguished Scholar of Cancer Research at UNC Charlotte, whose lab conducted the experiments. “As there is no obvious reason this should be so, we were interested in exploring possible cancer mechanisms that might explain why.” Mukherjee is a faculty member in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, Department of Biology.
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This year’s nominees for the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences’ Full-time Lecturer Award for Teaching Excellence and Part-time Lecturer Award for Teaching Excellence have been announced.

Six faculty have been nominated for the Full-time Lecturer Award and four faculty have been nominated for the Part-time Lecturer Award presented by the college.

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The spring plant sale at UNC Charlotte’s Botanical Gardens is still scheduled for Friday and Saturday, despite a fire on Wednesday night in one of the greenhouse rooms. The spring plant sale is the gardens’ largest sale of the year and its major fundraising event. All proceeds support the greenhouse and gardens’ operations and are needed now more than ever.

The sale is scheduled from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day, and plant lovers can find a wide selection of native plants and exotic botanicals for sale.  The selection will include wildflowers, trees and shrubs, perennials, carnivorous plants, orchids, tropicals, and indoor plants.In addition, staff will be available to answer questions. More information: http://gardens.charlotte.edu or 704-687-0721.

The greenhouse and gardens serve as a resource to the campus community, as well as the greater Charlotte community and its visitors. They are part of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences.

When the fire occurred, the Charlotte Fire Department and the UNC Charlotte Department of Police and Public Safety responded. No one was injured in the fire. One of the two Titan Arums — nicknamed Bella — did suffer damage but is expected to recover. Other specialized plants were destroyed.

In December 2011, A Celebration of Faculty Achievement recognized College of Liberal Arts & Sciences faculty in two categories:  those faculty who have received external funding during the previous academic year and those faculty who have published books.  128 faculty members in the College fall into one or the other of these two categories, and in four cases, both categories.

• Faculty Sponsored Research 2011
• Published Books 2011

Theoretical physicist Greg Gbur shares a slice of his life — as nano-optics researcher, teacher, science writer and skydiver.

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