Sherman L. Burson Jr., inaugural dean of UNC Charlotte’s then-College of Arts and Sciences, first chair of the Chemistry Department and the first Charles H. Stone Professor of Chemistry, passed away on December 3, 2012.

Burson, 88, of Chatham, Mass., was born to Edith Longsworth Burson and Sherman L. Burson, in Pittsburgh, Pa. on Dec. 24,1923, the first of four children. The family moved to Massachusetts, where Burson graduated from Harwich High School. He was president of his high school class.

He attended the University of Alabama as a freshman, before returning to Pennsylvania, where he worked and attended the University of Pittsburgh. He was drafted during World War II, and he entered the Army Specialized Training Program, spending 11 months at Louisiana State University in the special program. He was posted to Europe just after V-E Day and spent over three years in the U.S. Army.

Following the war, he returned to the University of Pittsburgh, where he earned a bachelor’s degree and doctoral degree in chemistry. He joined Lederle Laboratories in Pearl River, NY as a research chemist.

Burson had long wanted to teach, and in 1957, Lederle Laboratories granted him a leave of absence to pursue an academic career. He joined Pfeiffer College in Misenheimer as the head of the chemistry department. At the urging of Bonnie Cone, he accepted a position at Charlotte College, just before the institution became the fourth campus of the University of North Carolina in 1965.

He was a chemistry professor and chair of the chemistry department, which achieved accreditation from the American Chemical Society under his leadership. UNC Charlotte’s first chancellor, Dean Colvard, appointed Burson acting dean of the College of Science and Mathematics in 1973.

In 1980, Chancellor E.K. Fretwell named him dean of the newly formed College of Arts and Sciences (now the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences), formed by the merger of the College of Science and Mathematics with the College of Humanities and the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences. He held this post until retiring in June 1985.

Burson received the NCNB (now Bank of America) Award for Teaching Excellence and was named the first Charles H. Stone Professor of Chemistry. In 1999, UNC Charlotte re-dedicated the Physical Sciences Building and named it in his honor. The building’s design won a national architectural award and was included in the American School and Universities Architectural Portfolio for 1986.

In 2001, Burson was among the people honored by the American Chemical Society for over 50 years of membership. Burson served as chairman of the Piedmont Chapter of the American Chemical Society, held positions of the Charlotte Friends Meeting, and was active in peace, social justice, and community activities. He served several terms on the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Community Relations Committee, appointed by the mayor and chairman of the Mecklenburg County Board of Commissioners.

Burson and his wife, Thea, moved back to Cape Cod in 1987, where he was active in organizations including Eldredge Library Book Group, Retired Men’s Association, Yarmouth Friends Meeting, United Nations Association, AARP, and an active memoirs group. He also served as a docent at the Chatham Railroad Museum and was appointed by the Governor of Massachusetts to serve on the Chatham Housing Authority.

He enjoyed sailing his boat, Mother Macree, and he traveled in many countries on five continents with his family and friends. He also traveled with Elderhostel, the UNC Charlotte Travel Seminar, Friendship Force and Servas. The Bursons hosted numerous Servas and Friendship Force visitors in their home.

Burson used his substantial gifts to improve the lives of others. He dazzled and entertained with his intellect and wit, and led and mentored with compassion. While he dealt with Parkinson’s disease and other issues in later life, his fortitude, perseverance, kindness and humor never wavered.

“Sherman was the finest man I ever met. It was a privilege to know him,” said Emeritus Professor Thomas D. Walsh.

Burson is survived by his wife of 68 years, Theodora Burson; his four children, Valerie Burson (David Aldridge) of Houston, Texas; Laurie Gates (Mark Massoni) of South Chatham; Sherrie Burson (Robert Ralls) of McLean, Va.; and Sherman “Shan” L. Burson III (Linda Franklin) of Moose, Wyo. He also is survived by his four grandchildren: Serj Gates, Brittany and Lindsey Aldridge, and Austin Ralls; his sister, Shirley Hauck of Gibsonia, Pa.; and brother, Bill Burson of Farmington, N.M.

Donations may be sent to the Yarmouth Friends Meeting, 58 North Main Street, South Yarmouth, MA 02644 or to a charity of the donor’s choice. A memorial service will be held on December 10 at 11 AM at the Yarmouth Friends Meeting, 58 North Main Street, South Yarmouth, MA 02644.

UNC Charlotte’s Stanislav (Stas) A. Molchanov, a faculty member in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, is among the mathematicians who have been named to the 2013 prestigious inaugural class of American Mathematical Society Fellows.

“We are very proud of this recognition honoring Dr. Molchanov’s outstanding scholarship and position as a noted researcher in mathematics,” said Nancy A. Gutierrez, dean of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences at UNC Charlotte.

“Dr. Molchanov has contributed significantly to the discipline, particularly in probability and stochastic processes,” Gutierrez said. “His scholarly output is prolific, with hundreds of publications and dozens of presentations worldwide.” He has made presentations at academic conferences in Russia, Germany, Japan, Canada, Israel and other countries, and also has been a visiting faculty member in many countries, she said.

“In addition to the impact of his research, his energy and enthusiasm have long inspired his students,” she said. “Throughout his career, he has supervised over 100 master’s degree students and over 50 students who have received their doctoral degrees, including close to a dozen at UNC Charlotte.”

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In support of alumna Jessica Bongiovanni, who three months ago learned that she has a rare form of bone cancer, the Association of Chemistry Graduate Students is hosting a pie-throwing fundraiser – the “Pie Your Chemistry Professor or Lab TA” event – in the West Quad area on Tuesday, Oct. 23, from 12:30 to 3:30 PM.

Bongiovanni, who is 25, has osteosarcoma, an aggressive form of cancer which affects about 400 people a year across the United States. She learned of her cancer just ten weeks before her wedding, which has been postponed. She has been undergoing intense chemotherapy and her right leg has been amputated.

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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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