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.

Mathematical equations cycle through Kevin McGoff’s mind, as he pedals his bike on the system of greenways in north Charlotte.

The UNC Charlotte mathematician’s thoughts shift into gear, centered on problems associated with his field of study – dynamical systems. Dynamical systems serve as important mathematical models for a wide array of physical phenomena, relating to things such as weather modeling, systems biology, the spread of disease, and statistical physics, for example.

In mathematical terms, such a system consists of a state space, in which a point represents a complete description of the system, and a rule governing the evolution of the system from one state to another. These basically are units whose state evolves over time according to a kind of logic or rule.

On this day on the greenway, the verdant greenery that envelops McGoff, the ground beneath him, and the air he breathes, are all parts of a massive dynamical system – the Earth itself. In McGoff’s case, curiosity about Earth as a system was the original spark for what has grown into a research focus with implications for disease and other societal issues.

In one area of research, McGoff collaborates with epidemiologists who are studying the spread of diseases in populations and the dynamical effects that come into play within organisms. He currently is working with biologists to study malaria, work that grew from seeing system similarities through work with dynamical systems associated with circadian rhythms.

“You have these parasites that get into your body, and they essentially overwhelm your immune system in a dynamic way,” he says. “They all burst out of their cells at the same time, and then they swarm your immune system, and that’s when you get these spiking high fevers. That happens periodically.”

Researchers need to understand how this happens. “There must be some underlying dynamical system which tells them when to burst out.,” McGoff says. “If we can now study these parasites through observations of their genetic behavior over time – dynamic signatures of their genetics – the hope would be that we could understand what program is encoded in their DNA that allows them to coordinate their behavior. Of course, if we can understand what’s making them work, then the next step is how to break it.”

McGoff and colleagues have published in journals including Genome Biology, The Annals of Probability, and The Annals of Statistics and other publications. He continues to explore the theoretical side of dynamical systems, while he also collaborates on practical applications. Both have a place in research in this field, he says.

“Beginning with concrete examples of systems and then abstracting the relevant properties is often a good way to find interesting theoretical questions for further study,” he says.

McGoff has received National Science Foundation funding to focus on characterizing when traditional statistical procedures may be effectively applied in the context of dynamical systems.

“Imagine that you’re a scientist, and you want to understand the way a certain system works,” McGoff says. “You might have some form of equations that you think makes sense, but you want to know what exact parameters should I choose for this, or at a bigger level, what form of equations should I even select as a model for my data?”

In many cases, the underlying models that people try to use are dynamical systems. “This effort brings my knowledge of dynamical systems to bear on these statistical inference problems, going from observations of a system and trying to reconstruct the model,” he says. “So, how do you use the information you get from your observations in an intelligent way to understand the underlying dynamical system?”

In one discovery, McGoff has found a way to describe what he calls a random dynamical system.

“You basically have a big bag of dynamical systems,” he says. “And, a lot of what has been done in the past has been to pick one out specifically and look very carefully at it and understand how it works. One approach I looked at in specific cases was to select one at random and ask, “What does that one look like?” This helps to characterize what typical systems do, which can have more relevance for the real world. If you looked out into the world, what behavior would you expect to see? You would expect to see typical behavior. But, what is that? You need some way of choosing a system at random and then asking what it does.”

As McGoff works with undergraduate and graduate students, he reminds them of the need to continue to take varying views of problems and to consider things for different perspectives.

“Always take a different approach,” he says. “When an approach works, it just flows. An idea can come at a completely random time, like the shower in the morning or on a bike ride. When you have an idea, and the consequences just start flowing, and when you get that cascading effect of ideas, you know you’re onto something.”

Words and Images: Lynn Roberson, CLAS Communications Director | Illustration: Ashley Plyler, CLAS Graphic Designer

For 50 years, the UNC Charlotte Botanical Gardens has been a living classroom for students and a horticultural and botanical asset for the campus and greater community. Botanical Gardens Director Jeff Gillman describes how support through Exponential will sustain the future of the gardens, including its educational curriculum and ongoing research. Plans call for building a new welcome center that will serve as a gateway to the green heart of UNC Charlotte’s campus. This sustainable facility will draw students,faculty, staff and the public to an open and inviting teaching facility, working greenhouse and surrounding plaza, all designed to serve generations to come.

Former Army finance specialist Tyler Crone served in Afghanistan and later taught high school computer science. Now, Crone is earning his master’s degree in Mathematical Finance, confident that this will be the gateway to a challenging career.

The nationally ranked Mathematical Finance program is a joint program of the Departments of Finance and Economics in the Belk College of Business and the Department of Mathematics and Statistics in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences. Students take courses from all three departments in an integrated curriculum and may use electives to tailor the program to their specific interests.