College of Science

Creating classrooms that encourage a free exchange of ideas among students connects the six finalists for the 2020 UNC Charlotte Excellence in Teaching Awards. Five of the six finalists teach in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences.

The Department of Biological Sciences has developed graduate certificates in biomedical sciences and in biotechnology, in response to growing student and societal needs. The world’s critical needs continue to drive the demand for biotechnology and biomedical professionals.

In recognition of their exceptional teaching and abilities to connect with students, Didier Dréau, Angela Jakeway and Andrew Goff have received the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences Excellence in Teaching Awards for the 2019-2020 academic year.

Scientists and citizens are thinking about how slowdowns and shutdowns from COVID-19 might be helping the environment. Among those exploring this issue is UNC Charlotte atmospheric scientist Brian Magi, who is part of a local and global network of researchers who consider air quality and climate.

Two graduate students in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences – Nitika, who is pursuing her Ph.D. in Biological Sciences, and Caroline Brinegar, who is pursuing her master’s degree in Geography – were recently designated UNC Charlotte’s most Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistants.

Corals depend on their symbiotic relationships with the algae that they host. New insights into this important process, in a study by UNC Charlotte’s Tingting Xiang and colleagues, could offer clues to helping reefs survive.

As biology doctoral student Farida Yasmin advances her research into the wild soybean and its potential to address worldwide food scarcity, she continues to grow her impact and her knowledge. The wild soybean provides half the world’s vegetable oils and proteins but is susceptible to a devastating pest that Yasmin is addressing through cutting-edge omics technology.

Three College of Liberal Arts & Sciences graduate students earned the first, second and third-place places at UNC Charlotte’s Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition.

In a review article appearing in the November 18, 2019 issue of Trends in Molecular Medicine, University of North Carolina at Charlotte cancer biologists Pinku Mukherjee and Mukulika Bose discuss a mechanism that, they suggest, may implicate bacterial infections in a wide variety of cancers. This is a cause that science has yet to fully understand.

Two of the three finalists for each of the University’s two teaching excellence awards are faculty in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences. They are Oscar Lansen, Jordan Poler, Terry Shirley Jr., and Jennifer Webb.