College of Science

For over a decade, researchers and students in UNC Charlotte’s Center for Metamaterials have studied and created materials that can bend, absorb, transmit, and otherwise manipulate light and sound waves that pass through them. The center has joined a select group of such centers to earn a third phase of National Science Foundation (NSF) funding.

Levine Scholar Andrea Badillo-Pérez will pursue her passion for service as she heads to New York University Grossman School of Medicine with full funding, after receiving acceptances from 10 top-rated medical schools. Badillo-Pérez earned bachelor’s degrees in biology and psychology in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences and a minor in public health in the College of Health and Human Services.

A dozen UNC Charlotte students, faculty and staff joined other volunteers on Sunday, April 25 to install Barton Creek Greenway Native Meadows, a community native plant project in University City. They worked to install 25 varieties of plants to beautify the area and to provide education to people who want to use native plants.

For significant – and long-standing – contributions to the professional development of undergraduates, and in honor of his own research, Chemistry Professor Dan Rabinovich has received the top award presented by the American Chemical Society each year to a researcher who mentors undergraduate scholars in an outstanding manner.

The Personally Speaking published experts series in its 11th season looked at drones, cats, and Africa. Three UNC Charlotte scholars/researchers in 2020-2021 talks discussed books they have written and how they came to write them during the annual series.

UNC Charlotte Professor Emeritus Nickolas (Nick) M. Stavrakas, 74, passed away on March 24, 2021 at Atrium Health University City following a sudden illness. Stavrakas was a professor and administrator in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics for 43 years before retiring in 2015.

Chemistry undergraduate Terawit Kongruengkit and political science alumnus Anthony Lindsay each will receive a Graduate Research Fellowship from the National Science Foundation. They are among just 12 percent of applicants selected nationwide this year for the highly competitive honor.

UNC Charlotte researcher Rosario Porras-Aguilar is fascinated by light, inspired by its beauty and its usefulness. Specifically, she focuses her pioneering research on how light can enable more accurate quantitative data in fields ranging from microbiology to high-tech manufacturing. To support her research, Porras-Aguilar this spring received a coveted National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) Award.

With demand growing for renewable energy and for novel energy storage options, UNC Charlotte chemist Christopher Bejger is conducting innovative research that holds promise for new solutions. To support his research, Bejger this spring received a National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) award.

UNC Charlotte’s Master of Science in Mathematical Finance program has once again been named among the top-ranked programs in the nation, ranking No. 12 in the TFE Times’ 2021 Master of Financial Engineering program rankings. As a STEM-designated program of the Departments of Finance and Economics in the Belk College of Business and the Mathematics and Statistics Department in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, the program excels in readying students for careers in an emerging field.