Awards and honors

Shaoting Zhang, an assistant professor in the College of Computing and Informatics Department of Computer Science, has received a 2014 Ralph E. Power Junior Faculty Enhancement Award.  Presented by Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU),  the award provides seed money for research by junior faculty at ORAU member institutions. These awards are intended to enrich the research and professional growth of young faculty and result in new funding opportunities.

The publication QNotes recently named Josh Burford, assistant director for sexual and gender diversity in the Multicultural Resource Center, Charlotte’s Best LGBT Leader.
Burford’s selection resulted from ballots cast by QNotes readers earlier this year. UNC Charlotte senior Lee Ziglar was voted Best Young Adult Leader, too. According to its website, QNotes is an “LGBT arts, entertainment and news publication” based in Charlotte.
“I’m honored to be selected for this award, and I hope to continue to work hard on behalf of the local LGBTQ community,” said Burford.

The nation’s top educational facilities organization, APPA, recently presented its 2014 Award for Excellence in Facilities Management to UNC Charlotte at its meeting in San Diego, Calif. Phil Jones, associate vice chancellor, facilities management, accepted the honor on behalf of the University.

Logan Creech, Klint Mullis and Elrica Metayer, graduates of the Master of Urban Design (MUD) program, recently won two national student design awards in China. Their project “Ribbons: Redevelopment of Xiangmen Historic Area in Suzhou,” received an honor certificate in the third International Landscape Planning and Design Competition, co-organized by the Journal of China Construction and the International Landscape Design Industry Association.

UNC Charlotte’s UrbanEden, built for the 2013 U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon, placed third in the people’s choice voting for the annual Matsumoto Prize for Modernist residential design in North Carolina.
The Matsumoto Prize is named in honor of George Matsumoto, a founding faculty member at the N.C. State University School of Design (now College of Design) who is well known for many exemplary mid-century Modernist houses he designed across North Carolina.

Amber Carpenter, music alumna and harpist, won first prize in the Rosen-Schaffel Competition for Young and Emerging Artists presented by the Appalachian Summer Festival and Appalachian State University. 
Carpenter graduated from the UNC Charlotte Department of Music in 2013 with a Bachelor of Music in Music Performance (harp) and a minor in voice. She completed a graduate certificate in vocal pedagogy in May 2014.

Amy Hawn Nelson, director of research at the UNC Charlotte Urban Institute and director of its Institute for Social Capital, recently was named to the 2014-16 class of William C. Friday Fellows for Human Relations.

The goal of the Friday Fellowship is to cultivate a network of “courageous leaders who connect across differences in identity and ideas to develop new solutions to the complex challenges facing the people and communities of North Carolina through a human relations lens.”

The International Parking Association has given 2014 Awards of Merit to the University’s CRI Deck I and the South Village Deck.
For its competition, the association fielded entries from Australia, Canada, Europe, South America and the United States.

Betty Doster and Amy Wartham recently were named to the list of 50 Most Influential Women by the Mecklenburg Times. The publication solicited nominees from the community, and an independent panel of judges selected the final honorees.
Doster is special assistant to the chancellor for constituent relations, and Wartham is director of corporate training in the Office of Continuing Education. This is the second time that Wartham was chosen for inclusion to the list.

The learning and development team in UNC Charlotte’s Human Resources Department has received the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources (CUPA-HR) 2014 Excellence in Human Resource Practices Award.
The team, comprised of Joanna Roop, employee learning and development manager, and learning and development specialists Kathy Hurst and Jules Keith-Le, is being honored for developing the Leadership Experience program.