Because of the findings and subsequent news coverage regarding concussions and brain damage in football, awareness has grown that playing the game may involve incurring life-threatening health problems that develop in later life, namely head injuries.

Yet, head injuries are not the only serious risk involved in playing the sport. Studies with professional football players have also shown that sleep apnea, a serious breathing disorder during sleep common in older men, is also common in professional players, and in particular, in linemen.

A new UNC Charlotte study with college-age linemen suggests that the roots of this health problem in football players may begin much earlier, and at an age when the condition is less likely to occur in the general population. While it is not yet possible to identify the cause of the increased risk, a comparison study with other competitive athletes of the same age implies a relationship between physical conditioning specific to football linemen and the health threat.

The study, “Examination of Risk for Sleep Disordered Breathing among College Football Players” is forthcoming in the Journal of Sport Rehabilitation. The authors are exercise physiologists Bailey Beck and Joseph S. Marino in the College of Health and Human Services, and sleep psychologists Hannah Peach and Jane Gaultney, and biologist Timothy Renzi in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences.

Though the sleep apnea risks found in college-age linemen are not as dramatic as those found in previous studies with older players, the findings imply higher future risks and point to the need to fully assess the potential consequences of college training, particularly for linemen who quit conditioning after college when they do not pursue careers as profession football players.

“At the professional level there have been two studies – one for retired football players and one for current — that showed they were at greater risk for sleep-disorder breathing,” Gaultney said. “We wondered if that tendency was also visible at the college level, because college is, in some sense, a window of opportunity when you can educate people on health risks.”

Since it would be unexpected to find evidence of any significant occurrence of sleep-disordered breathing in a college-age sample, the study was designed to target the likeliest candidates to detect early signals of the condition.

“The population of pro football players that was at greatest risk were the linemen,” Marino said. “That was why we targeted the college linemen for this particular study.”

For a comparison population, the researchers picked track athletes, specifically runners, because their sport tends to demand a lean body-type which would contrast with the standard bulk of the linemen, but with equivalent levels of physical exertion, training and athleticism.

The researchers’ reasoning for the study design is that the most common reason for sleep disordered breathing – sleep apnea – in older people is fairly well understood and relates to neck structure.

“Among adults, the collapsing airway is a common cause of sleep apnea, but it’s increasing among children as children become more obese,” Gaultney said. “Generally, among children it is tonsils and adenoids – the tonsils get enlarged and restrict the airway. It’s not a condition that only occurs in older adults or in children with infections though; even a younger adult who has that massive neck can have it.”

Solid correlational data compares neck circumference and sleep apnea, Marino said. “We found when we compared our linemen that there were significantly larger necks compared with our leaner control group and that seemed to pair up well with our data,” he said.

The study compared data from the two test groups acquired through the use of the Multivariable Apnea Prediction survey a self-report tool used to screen symptoms of obstructive sleep apnea, as well as physiological measures that have been associated with obstructive sleep apnea (such as neck circumference, tonsil size, and a measure of the amount of clear space between the base of the tongue and the roof of the mouth).

While the results did not show a high likelihood of the presence of current sleep disordered breathing in the college-age football linemen, both self-report and physiological measures suggested significantly greater risk for the disorder in the football players when compared to the track athletes.

“What was interesting about the data from the football players is that even at the college level – these are young healthy people – you wouldn’t expect them to have health problems,” Gaultney said. “Football linemen are athletes and they are working out all the time, and yet the working out that they are doing, the body configuration that they are building, may simultaneously be increasing their risk for sleep-disorder breathing. It’s not a fat issue – there is not much body fat in their case, it’s mainly bulk.”

Linemen are of particular note for the risks they face, Marino said.

“Linemen pretty much check all the boxes for greater risk,” he said. “The linemen carry more body fat when compared to players of other positions. Indeed, based on the overall size of the athlete, linemen carry a high percentage of lean mass, but I think the real discerning factor is the fat mass that is associated with being a lineman and where they tend to carry it – around the neck and the torso – I think the combination of the athlete’s mass in these anatomical locations all lead to an increase in risk.”

Although no studies have been done on the risks for sleep disordered breathing in college football players after college, the researchers stress that there is a potential problem in life post-play that may increase the lifetime risk to college-only players.

“The chances are that most college football players are not going to the NFL, and when they stop playing college football, their physical activity might drop off,” Marino said.

“When there’s a lapse in physical activity, the gain in fat tissue is from reduced physical activity while maintaining the caloric consumption,” he said. “When they were training, they had to maintain caloric consumption to keep up with their physical activity. The physical activity might drop from three hours a day to 30 minutes. Especially when we talk about athletes that tend to carry more fat mass – they had accumulated more to begin with and now they are not burning as much on top of that. If that is not modified, then sleep apnea is one of the many possible consequences.”

Screening these athletes through this system can help, the researchers submit. “We have put together a combination of survey and non-invasive methods to help catch those who are at risk and can make them aware that, later in life, if they don’t make changes, this is a possible outcome,” Marino said.

Gaultney stressed that the suspicion that a health intervention might be needed was, in part, what spurred the study.

“You can alert people that if they continue on this path, the likelihood is they are going to graduate and they are not going to be as active as when involved in their collegiate sport, leading to an increase in fat accumulation,” she said. “That can mean that they are already on the path to sleep disordered breathing, even if they don’t have it now. If people understand this, they can modify their outcomes – they can change and be healthier.”

Words: James Hathaway

Two College of Liberal Arts & Sciences students received the first Harper-Thomas Legacy Endowment for Study Abroad awards, presented at a spring 2018 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.

DeVante Thomas-Pittman and Kendra Shaw are the first two recipients of this annual merit-based award, which supports students’ international educational experiences with preference given to self-identified first-generation college students from underrepresented populations.

Thomas-Pittman is a sophomore who is majoring in French and German with a minor in Italian. He will study abroad in France this summer. Shaw is a junior biology major who is minoring in psychology and will study abroad in South Africa this summer.

Both students have been active on campus and in the broader community. Thomas-Pittman works in the Multicultural Resource Center as a student employee and is program coordinator with the Campus Activities Board. He also is an orientation counselor and is vice president of the university French club. Shaw has served as an ambassador with the Wellness Ambassador effort and is a biology tutor, as well as interning with Kaiser Permanente and acting as a scribe at Gaston Memorial in the emergency room.

Harper and Thomas were honored guests at the event, there to present the awards, and many members of the Black Alumni Chapter have been essential to the establishment of this endowment.

When Harper and Thomas arrived at UNC Charlotte in the 1970s, the winds of social and political change still lingered in the air, and hundreds of first-generation students were embarking upon an educational and intellectual journey for which they were surely excited if not unprepared.

“This is a time in my life where I am not as young as I used to be, but I am also not as old as I could be,” said Thomas, professor emeritus of religious studies, addressing a crowd that included many of his former students. “I always had your future in mind and the future has come. Continue giving on your journey from ordinariness to greatness and thank you for allowing me to be a part of your life.”

Working within classrooms, the halls of University administration and Charlotte’s boardrooms and churches, these professors spent more than 30 years helping to recruit, educate, prepare and retain talented but often underserved students. Their legacy and focus on students continues with this endowment.

“This night is certainly an honor for Dr. Thomas and myself,” said Harper, professor emerita of English. “I have met the recipients of this year’s award, and I am quite impressed with them.”

Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles attended the event to congratulate and honor Harper and Thomas. “There is no better way to end my day than to be here to honor two people who have given so much to this community,” she said. “Dr. Harper and Dr. Thomas poured life experiences into their students.”

She also told the alumni in attendance that their ability to attend and graduate from UNC Charlotte is one of the reasons Charlotte is such a great and growing community. “You have made it possible for students to follow you, and you have honored those who came before you.”

Photos: Herman Thomas presents awards to Kendra Shaw, center, and Devante Thomas-Pittman, right. Mary Harper, left, with Terrell Blackmon of the Black Alumni Chapter. 

Faculty authors in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences at UNC Charlotte in 2017 edited and published 42 books on a variety of topics ranging from language and culture studies to physics and optical science. Texts also included topics such as public relations, history, religious studies, and African American studies. The books included textbooks, research publications, novels, and other forms.

Books that faculty wrote or edited included:

• At Home, Away From Home: A Memoir by Tanure Ojaide. Cissus World Press
• For the Women in Their Lives: An Anthology of American Male Poets, edited by Tanure Ojaide and Dike Okoro. Cissus World Press
• Literature and Culture in Global Africa by Tanure Ojaide. Routledge
• From Slaveships to Scholarships: The Plight of the African-American Athlete by Charles Pinckey. Author House
• Contemporary African American Families: Achievements, Challenges, Empowerment Strategies in the Twenty-First Century, edited by Dorothy Smith-Ruiz, Sherri Lawson Clark and Marcia J. Watson. Routledge
• The Bioarchaeology of Community, edited by Sara L. Juengst and Sara K. Becker. American Anthropological Association
• Is Science Racist? Debating Race by Jonathan Marks. Polity Press
• Evolutionary Ecology of Marine Invertebrate Larvae, edited by Tyler J. Carrier, Adam M. Reizel and Andreas Heyland. Oxford University Press
• Engineering 3D Tissue Test Systems, edited by Karen J. L. Burg, Didier Dréau and Timothy Burg. CRC Press
• Workbook to Accompany Straight Talk About Communication Research Methods by Christine S. Davis, Brandy J. Stamper, and Sayde J. Brais. Kendall Hunt
• The Eternal Present of Sport: Rethinking Sport and Religion by Daniel A. Grano. Temple University Press
• Applied Small Group Communication: Learning Through Experience by Sandy Herrod Hanson. Kendall Hunt
• Transparency, Public Relations, and the Mass Media: Combating the Hidden Influences in News Coverage Worldwide by Katerina Tsertsura and Dean Kruckeberg. Routledge Focus
• The Love of Baseball: Essays by Lifelong Fans, edited by Chris Arvidson and Diana Nelson Jones. McFarland & Company
• Sycamore: A Novel by Bryn Chancellor. Harper Collins
• Freedom Narratives of African American Women: A Study of 19th Century Writings by Janaka Bowman Lewis. McFarland & Company
• The Ada Decades by Paula Martinac. Bywater Books
• Edward II: A Critical Reader, edited by Kirk Melnikoff. Bloomsbury Arden Shakespeare
• Shakespeare and Ecofeminist Theory by Rebecca Laroche and Jennifer Munroe. Bloomsbury Arden Shakespeare
• A Curious Peril: H.D.’s Late Modernist Prose by Lara Vetter. University Press of Florida
• GeoComputational Analysis and Modeling of Regional Systems, edited by Jean-Claude
• Thill and Suzana Dragicevic. Springer International Publishing
• Information Fusion and Intelligent Geographic
• Information Systems (IF&IGIS’17): New Frontiers in Information Fusion and Intelligent GIS: From Maritime to Land-based Research, edited by Vasily Popovich, Manfred Schrenk, Jean-Claude Thill, Christophe Claramunt, and Tianzhen Wang. Springer International Publishing
• Spatial Analysis and Location Modeling in Urban and Regional Systems, edited by Jean-Claude Thill. Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
• Feminist Translation Studies: Local and Transnational Perspectives, edited by Olga Castro and Emek Ergun. Routledge
• Goat Castle: A True Story of Murder, Race, and the Gothic South by Karen L. Cox. University of North Carolina Press
• The Gifted Generation: When Government was Good by David Goldfield. Bloomsbury
• Chromatius of Aquileia and the Making of a Christian City by Robert McEachnie. Routledge
• The Touch of Civilization: Comparing American and Russian Internal Colonization by Steven Sabol. University Press of Colorado
• Soviet Historiography and the Questions of the History in Kazakhstan: A Retrospective of the life and work of Ermukhan Bekmakhanov, edited by Abdulvahap Kara, Steven Sabol, and Bekir Sadik Topaloglu. Union of Turkic World Municipalities
• Le Cinéma Français Contemporain: Manuel de Classe by Alan Singerman and Michèle Bissière. Foucs
• Máximo Castillo and the Mexican Revolution, edited by Jesús Vargas Valdés, Translated by Ana-Isabel Aliaga- Buchenau. Louisiana State University Press
• Quantitative Research Methods in Translation and Interpreting Studies by Christopher D. Mellinger and Thomas A. Hanson. Routledge
• German Culture through Film: An Introduction of German Cinema by Robert Reimer, Reinhard Zachau, with contributions by Margit Sinka. Focus
• Access & Equity: Promoting High Quality Mathematics, edited by Anthony Fernandes, Sandra Crespo, and Marta Civil. Teachers of Mathematics
• American Mathematical Contests: A Guide to Success by Harold B. Reiter and Jonathan M. Kane. World Publishing Corporation
• Infrared Antennas and Resonant Structures by Javier Alda and Glenn Boreman. SPIE Press
• Gambling and War: Risk, Reward, and Chance in International Conflict by Justin Conrad. Naval Institute Press
• American Cities and the Politics of Party Conventions by Eric S. Heberlig , Suzanne M. Leland, and David Swindell. SUNY Press.
• Cost Accounting in Government: Theory and Applications, edited by Zachary Mohr. Routledge
• Combative Politics: The Media and Public Perceptions of Lawmaking by Mary Layton Atkinson. University of Chicago Press
• Religion: Embodied Religion, edited by Kent L. Brintnall. Macmillan Reference, USA
• Sexual Disorientations: Queer Temporalities, Affects and Theologies, edited by Kent L. Brintnall, Joseph A. Marchal, and Stephen D. Moore. Fordham University Press
• A Call to China by Jeffrey Meyer. Ingram Elliot

Words compiled by Brittany Algiere | Image: Lynn Roberson

The UNC Charlotte students clustered around young Landon Boyer in the Woodward Hall classroom, just a few steps from the CCI Makerspace lab where they had coalesced as a team over the past semester.

Boyer flexed his elbow and curled the fingers of his new red and blue prosthetic hand around a bottle of tea. The students greeted the sight with cheers, tears and fist bumps with Boyer, before taking him to see the lab where the device was created.

For months, the UNC Charlotte Helping Hand Project team had used 3D printers and other tools in the Makerspace lab within the College of Computing and Informatics (CCI) to build recreational prosthetic arms for Boyer and other children with limb differences.

While team members had already shipped a device to Amy, a girl in Texas, their visit with Boyer marked the first time they had witnessed face-to-face the impact of their work.

“Hands-on designing something, putting it together, putting hours into this (Makerspace) room to build a final product that could be given to a kid and trying to get it as perfect as it possibly can be — there’s something uniquely special about that,” said Henry Weaver, president of the Helping Hand Project student group “It gives you motivation and drive to finish something that could potentially be very great.”

For Weaver, a senior in the biology honors program and a Spanish and chemistry minor, moments like these put into context the time spent in Makerspace.

“You’re in here, and you get a bunch of failed prints time after time that you’re putting together, and it’s frustrating and tedious, and sometimes you lose track of what you’re doing,” Weaver said.

Inspirational Power

But then, along comes a video from Amy, thanking the team for her device printed in her favorite color purple and for the care package that included a stuffed bear in Charlotte 49er gear. Or, they receive photos of 13-year-old Boyer at home, showcasing his dexterity with his device, and they are reminded and re-energized.

“Just to be able to see where the research and development and education make a difference — a real positive difference — in somebody’s life, to see the light go on in his eyes when he gets his new ‘robot hand,’ is incredible,” said David Wilson, a software and information systems professor who co-advises the Helping Hand Project student group with biology professor Richard Chi.

Wilson’s overall research interests include human-computer interaction, which led to an interest in makerspaces and fabrication — which led to the opening of Makerspace in CCI in the fall of 2016. The space is meant to inspire the process of making, which includes making things for social good, such as with the Helping Hand Project.

Students in biology, engineering, computer science, public relations, exercise science, psychology, education, marketing and other majors have been drawn to the Helping Hand Project. They come together with their differing skills, knowledge and future aspirations, united by their shared drive to meet a pressing human need. While these printed devices are not intended to be a complete replacement for an FDA regulated, professionally consulted prosthesis, they do provide the user with an affordable introductory device. They also offer some functionality for grasping light and pliable objects, as well as having shown to boost many recipients’ confidence.

Brandon Glover is project director for the Helping Hand student group and was one of the first students to sign on to start the effort. He has since completed his bachelor’s degree in exercise science and is on a path to pursue osteopathic medicine.

“Since the beginning of this journey, I have noticed a change in myself,” he said. “I have become more interested in trying to find ways to directly help our community and specifically our children. I am very interested in mission work and plan to use my medical degree to help people all around the globe.”

Multilevel Learning

Johanna Okerlund, who oversees Makerspace, is pursuing a doctoral degree in computing and information systems and is a member of the Helping Hand Project team. She has noticed multiple levels of learning in the group.

“It’s very empowering to know that with tools that are right around you, you can actually help real people,” Okerlund said. “You learn what the machines can and can’t do because you try something that sort of reaches that limit, and it doesn’t work. Another sort of learning is about working with other people, so you learn in what ways you are similar to and different from other people.”

The students have learned not to assume how others perceive aspects of the work and to tune in to possible differences in approach or perception, she said. “If you can notice those differences and articulate those differences, you actually can build on those differences and come together with an even better thing,” she said.

Like the students, the group’s two faculty advisors come from different disciplines and draw from their distinct knowledge, interests and skills.

When Chi, a molecular and cell biologist, and his wife learned their child would be born with a limb difference, he read academic literature to learn all he could. He found an international community focused on sharing open-source designs and making devices for children, and he connected with other families.

Chi built a relationship with Jeff Powell, founder of the Helping Hand nonprofit organization in Chapel Hill, with which the UNC Charlotte group is affiliated. Powell, who graduated from the biomedical engineering program at UNC Chapel Hill, has joined UNC Charlotte this fall as a master’s degree student in biology and is part of both Chi’s and Wilson’s research teams.

Chi recalls his delight in discovering the Makerspace lab at CCI. “I learned about printing recreational prosthetics using a 3D printer and started looking for a local place to print these devices, and I came across the newly opened Makerspace just one floor down from my office,” he said.

Since the space is open to the UNC Charlotte community, he headed downstairs to learn to use the printer.

Wilson noticed Chi working, and as he often does with people using the space, he struck up a conversation about Chi’s project.

‘Fabulous Project’

“He turned around and said, ‘Well, I’m 3D printing a prosthetic hand for a 9-year-old girl in Texas,’ and I was floored,” Wilson said. “We had opened the space, and I had never imagined out of the gate that we would get such a fabulous project incubated right here.

“And I immediately started trying to help figure out how we could do more and bigger and better on this kind of making for social good,” Wilson continued. “From that point, we started working together writing grant proposals and working on other ways of outreach and connection with the Helping Hand Project out of Chapel Hill. And, it all took off from there.”

Chi also reached out to biology student Weaver, who intends to be a doctor and researcher, and who immediately took the role of president of the Helping Hand student group. Other students quickly signed on.

“I think the beauty of it is, you don’t have to have a major interest in engineering or biology,” Chi said. “You just need to have this desire to help out on a topic that is appealing to many people. They may not know someone with a limb difference, but they can relate to a child who has a limb difference. And everything in your heart says —let’s do whatever we can to give this child anything we can that could make their life a little bit better.”

Focused Fundraisers

While the designs are open-source, the students still must raise money to purchase materials for printing and to cover other expenses. Past efforts included a “rent a puppy” activity and a “pie your professor” event. In the fall, their Helping Hand Project was part of the Crowdfund UNC Charlotte effort, raising 130 percent of its goal.

One family that helped raise awareness of the students’ fundraising effort is the Boyer family — Landon and his brothers, Ryan and Logan, and his mom and dad, Mariann and Tom. For them, the relationships and experiences have been invaluable.

“There are plenty of children out there who would benefit from the experience as well as the arm,” Mariann Boyer said. “Because the experience of meeting with these guys and seeing how these arms are built and everything that goes into this is useful in and of itself. And the arm is just an added bonus to that.”

In mid-December, 2017, the Helping Hand Project at UNC Charlotte presented the latest device the students had made to 7-year-old Joel Payne (pictured above with UNC Charlotte Helping Hand creator Jeff Powell) of the Statesville/Taylorsville community. He and his parents and older brother came to UNC Charlotte to be fitted for the device. They also went home with a second, keepsake arm signed by running back Jonathan Stewart and other Carolina Panthers. The Charlotte Observer provided this account of the presentation. 

Words and Images: Lynn Roberson, CLAS Communications Director (Last Image: Wade Bruton, University Photographer)

On Oct. 8, 2016, what would have been Spencer Bise’s 21st birthday, his friends and family came to the UNC Charlotte Botanical Gardens to celebrate his too-short life. Attendees gathered under the scarlet leaves of the titi tree dedicated in his honor to offer their remembrances and condolences.

“The dedication ceremony was very helpful to us emotionally,” recalled organizer and Botanical Gardens volunteer Sydney Hillman (’18). “We were very appreciative to be able to honor him in this way.”

Since 1966, the UNC Charlotte Botanical Gardens has served as an outdoor oasis and vibrant classroom for the campus and broader Charlotte community. The Botanical Gardens are open to the public and offer 6,000 plant species over its 10 acres. Hillman’s connection demonstrates the gardens’ significance to the campus and its students.

When she arrived at UNC Charlotte as a freshman, the education major with a love for all things green was immediately drawn to the gardens. It soon became her go-to place to relax, meditate and literally smell the roses. After the tragic loss of her good friend and fellow 49er in October 2015, the gardens also became her place of solace.

A Verdant Gem

“The (McMillan) Greenhouse supported me 100 percent during that time,” said Hillman, referring to one of the gardens’ popular sites. She got the idea for the memorial when Jeff Gillman, director of the gardens, asked how he could help. Dedicating a tree in Spencer’s honor seemed like the perfect way to demonstrate her love for her friend and the gardens.

Hillman is joined by others in her appreciation of the unique attributes of this verdant gem. The UNC Charlotte Botanical Gardens has carved out a niche as a center of botany and horticulture the greater Charlotte metro region; actually, the Botanical Gardens attracts international visitors, but its reputation probably is more accurately described as regional. Certainly people visit regularly from Rock Hill, Statesville, Hickory, Salisbury and other nearby locations.“Our collection of native carnivorous plants includes everything from Venus flytraps to pitcher plants and sundews,” Gillman said. “Perhaps our most interesting collections are our rhododendrons and azaleas. We have thousands of these in the Van Landingham Glen, and they put on an amazing show when they bloom in the spring. The gardens were actually started by the local rhododendron society, so this is our oldest collection.”

About 40,000 people visit the Botanical Gardens each year, many to seek out the site’s more than 90 secluded spots. Students study on benches, have lunch at a picnic table or nap in a hammock. Off-campus visitors come to learn, meditate or walk their dogs on paths through the pet-friendly gardens.

Bucolic Classroom

Quite often, the bucolic setting serves as an outdoor lecture hall for classes. Teachers in poetry, graphic design, geography, earth and biological sciences and language and cultural studies have all turned the Botanical Gardens into a classroom to encourage students to embrace nature and gain inspiration from the natural world. Assistant Professor of English Matthew Rowney compares the settings to those found in Wadsworth’s “The Prelude.”

To keep the gardens in pristine shape and spread the word about their existence, dedicated volunteers support the site.

“The first time I walked through the gardens was on a cold, drizzly day in March,” said landscape designer Lydia Grupinski. “The gardens were still asleep but I recognized how amazing it was and knew I wanted to be a part of it.”

Grupinski volunteers as a Monday Glory and does everything from weeding, pruning and transplanting to labeling plants and leading tours. Hillman, the student, also guides and instructs visitors. She was the first undergraduate volunteer for the Flower Friday program, where visitors receive a free flower and learn about the plant.Educational opportunities are replete for anyone who wants to gain a deeper understanding of plants and horticulture or simply learn how to grow better vegetables. Throughout the year, the “At Home in the Garden Series” offers a range of stand-alone short workshops, such as mailbox gardens and pressed flower art.

A 100-credit Certificate in Native Plant Studies is also available. The certificate is one of just a few in the Southeast that provides an intense focus on the cultivation and knowledge of native plants. This initiative has influenced other botanic gardens and universities to offer native plant courses and serves to demonstrate the UNC Charlotte Botanical Gardens’ broader impact.

The Botanical Gardens symposium is becoming a must-attend event for gardeners, plant enthusiasts and those interested in creating broader social change through sustainable practices. On Saturday, Jan. 27, 2018, this year’s symposium will focus on “Urban Roots: Transforming the Urban Landscape.” The symposium will investigate topics ranging from nurturing children’s introduction to nature as a learning environment, to cultivating fungi in an environmentally friendly fashion, to participating in the community gardens movement.

“With our concentration on the urban environment, we hope to attract typical gardeners, millennials and urban activists — people who want to turn a concrete jungle into a greener environment,” said Gillman, the gardens’ director.

Fundraising for Facilities

Expanding public outreach is a priority. “Our plant collections and our staff and faculty expertise are outstanding, yet we could do so much more to meet the needs of our campus and broader community through improvements and expansion of our facilities,” said Nancy Gutierrez, dean of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences. “Our community could benefit greatly from the construction of a welcome center and new conservatories, to provide more instructional, demonstration and event space.”

The University is in the midst of its fundraising initiative EXPONENTIAL: The Campaign for UNC Charlotte. CLAS and gardens leaders are seeking funding for a 15,000-square-foot visitors center and conservatory to serve as a gateway to this green heart of the campus. The first phase seeks $2.5 million.

CLAS gift officers Judy Lekoski and Ali Dubois are working with Gillman, the gardens director, to raise support for what is envisioned as the largest under-glass conservatory complex between Atlanta and Washington, D.C. The classroom, conservatories and gallery area would substantially increase the Botanical Gardens’ ability to provide more and larger educational and community events.

Why this is important ties to the gardens’ power to relate broadly to the campus and the community, Gutierrez said.

“The foundation of life is built upon the diverse plants that cover the Earth,” she said. “Through our Botanical Gardens, our community gains an appreciation of the symbiotic relationship that exists between people and plants. In this living classroom, we explore the scientific aspects of nature, and also the cultural, artistic and humanistic roles that plants play in our lives.”

Words: Melba Newsome | Images: Lynn Roberson | This article first appeared in the Fall//Winter 2017 issue of the UNC Charlotte magazine.

UNC Charlotte’s Bank of America Alumni Network honored three distinguished individuals, including CLAS alumni, for their professional and community service achievements at a reception held at the Vue in Uptown Charlotte on Dec. 6, 2017.

Frenchie Wilson Brown (’91) received the Alumni Service Award, Julie Harris (’00) received the Professional Achievement Award, and Jarron Thomas (’12) received the Young Professional Award.

Brown (’91, criminal justice) is a senior project manager at Bank of America. She serves as co-chair of the LEAD for Women (Leadership, Education, Advocacy and Development for Women) Charlotte Charitable Involvement Committee and is a mentor and positive role model to the group’s 3,000 members. She has been called a fearless leader and advocate for woman and black professionals within Bank of America and the community. Brown has worked with many nonprofit organizations, including Dress for Success, the Girl Scouts, YWCA and Girl Talk. She was selected to participate in the Bank of America’s Women’s Executive Development Program and completed a law degree in May 2017.

Thomas (’12, economics and sociology) is a business continuity consultant at Bank of America.  He is co-founder of Jump Institute, a startup piloting software focused on equipping students for tomorrow by facilitating innovative approaches to STEAM education today. Thomas was recognized as the winner of City Startup Labs Business Pitch competition in 2014 for his entrepreneurial efforts in the EdTech space and was named one of Charlotte’s Top 30 under 30 by the Charlotte Mecklenburg Chamber of Commerce. He serves on the Board of Directors of 100 Black Men of Charlotte and was awarded the Lenny Springs Legacy Award in 2014 for his contributions to the UNC Charlotte chapter. Thomas was a Global Volunteer award recipient from Bank of America in 2017 for his efforts in the Charlotte community.

Harris (’00, finance with a concentration in accounting) is an enterprise credit data, allowance and reporting risk executive with Bank of America. As the former executive sponsor of the FMAP (Finance Management Associate Program) in the CFO Group at Bank of America, she has shown great interest in developing students with the potential to become long-term hires at Bank of America. Together with her family, Harris established a scholarship that will allow students from the University’s Belk College of Business to travel internationally for study abroad programs, to attend professional conferences and present research alongside faculty mentors. She was recognized as one of Charlotte’s 40 Under 40 Leaders in Business by the Charlotte Business Journal in 2015 and served as chair of the Arts & Science Council 2017 Campaign for Global Risk. Harris is the incoming chair of the Belk College of Business Board of Advisors and serves on the UNC Charlotte Foundation Board, where she chairs the governance committee.

Image: Johnathan Hill, Jarron Thomas, Julie Harris, Dean of the Belk College of Business Steve Ott, Lisa Hill and Frenchie Wilson Brown.

The Department of English and Chemistry Associate Professor Thomas Schmedake have earned awards of excellence from Provost Joan Lorden for their commitment to students and citizens of the region.

Lorden presented the Award for Excellence in Teaching to the English Department and the Faculty Award for Community Engagement to Schmedake. She also awarded the Excellence in Undergraduate Academic Advising to the College of Arts + Architecture advising team.

“The University has had a long-standing commitment to teaching excellence,” Lorden said. “As UNC Charlotte grows and diversifies, the way we educate and engage students also changes.” She recognized how the English Department has worked together to maintain high-quality teaching in this changing and increasingly diversified environment.

The teaching honor comes with a $5,000 award from the UNC Board of Governors and the Provost’s Office, as well as a plaque for departmental display.

The English Department earned accolades for its ability to increase its number of majors and for revamping its curriculum to provide students with more exposure to diverse combinations of sub-disciplinary areas, which include literature, and language and writing, combined with cutting-edge work in diversity studies, eco-studies and digital humanities.

The department also has increased its online and hybrid course offerings at the undergraduate and graduate levels to make its curriculum more accessible to students. This demonstrates that the department is making efforts to broaden its course delivery methods to cater to the demands of the 21st century student.

With the second honor presented, the Provost’s Faculty Award for Community Engagement honors a tenured faculty member whose teaching, research and service epitomize the University’s commitment to civic involvement.

Schmedake was cited for leading workshops to help K-12 science teachers develop effective ways of demonstrating chemical concepts and engaging students in hands-on activities to help them better understand chemistry. He engages K-12 science students through exciting demonstrations and by mentoring high school students in his research laboratory. As the UNC Charlotte coordinator for Project Seed, Schmedake oversees a program that provides paid internships for economically disadvantaged students to pursue laboratory research with college professors.

As a member of the planning committee for the UNC Charlotte Science and Technology Expo each year, Schmedake volunteers to promote, organize and execute this annual event that brings thousands of people onto campus. His popular chemistry demonstration is a highlight of the expo. He also works with Discovery Place on community engagement educational activities, such as NanoDiscovery Day.

The Provost’s Faculty Award for Community Engagement comes with a $2,500 prize for the recipient to use to expand his or her work. Starting fall 2018, this award will be the Bonnie E. Cone Distinguished Professorship in Community Engagement. Nominations for this award are being accepted through 5 p.m., Friday, Oct. 20, 2017.

Images: Wade Bruton (English Department and Schmedake at the awards event) and Lynn Roberson (Schmedake at the Science and Technology Expo).

The Russian Academy of Science’s Sobolev Institute of Mathematics has awarded its 2017 Gold Medal for distinguished impact in mathematics to Mikhail Klibanov, a professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at UNC Charlotte. This award is considered a lifetime achievement award in the field of mathematics.

“I am greatly honored to be recognized with this award,” Klibanov says. “To be recognized in this way is humbling. My heart is full.”

Klibanov joined the faculty at UNC Charlotte in 1990, after serving as an associate professor for the Department of Mathematics at The Samara State University in Samara, Russia from 1977 to 1990.

“This award is an important recognition of Dr. Klibanov’s work,” says Yuanan Diao, chair of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics. “This medal recognizes his work throughout his career, including the solutions he has discovered to crucial mathematical problems and also the contributions he has made over the years to sharing his solutions through extensive publishing, which has helped others in their research.”

Klibanov has solved ten different long-standing important problems in the field of “Inverse Problems for Partial Differential Equations,” including the development of globally convergent numerical methods for coefficient inverse problems, uniqueness of Phase Problems in Optics, and uniqueness theorems and reconstruction methods for 3-d Inverse Scattering Problems without the phase information.

He possesses substantial experience in research including inverse problems arising in microwaves and nano science. His work in the complex and difficult field of inverse problems began in 1973, when he was a graduate student. He has continued that research as a professor, with funding from the U.S. Army Research Office in reference to the detection and identification of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) in Iraq and Afghanistan. Other funding comes from the Office of Naval Research to support research into the phase reconstruction problem.

As an example of real-world implications for his research, his algorithm regarding globally convergent numerical methods for coefficient inverse problems holds implications for determining the materials in potentially explosive devices, which in turn can save lives.

Klibanov is widely published, with 143 publications – including two books – and 1,432 citations by other researchers noted in MathSciNet, a searchable online bibliographic database created by the American Mathematical Society in 1996. Google Scholar has documented almost 5,000 citations of his work by other scholars.

As part of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Science, the Sobolev Institute of Mathematics in Novosibirsk includes about 500 researchers who carry on fundamental investigations in mathematics, mathematical physics and informatics.

Words: Haley Coley, CLAS Student Writer | Images: Lynn Roberson, CLAS Communications Director

The Bank of America Award for Teaching Excellence was first presented in 1968 to recognize outstanding faculty members at UNC Charlotte. Through the years, dozens of College of Liberal Arts & Sciences faculty have received the top award, reflecting their commitment to stellar teaching.

It was established in response to a suggestion by the staff of the student literary magazine. Bonnie E. Cone and W. Hugh McEniry, vice chancellors at the time, endorsed the students’ proposal for the annual award and presented it to Chancellor Dean Colvard. He found financial support for the award through the generosity of Addison Reese and NCNB, a predecessor to NationsBank and Bank of America.