College of Liberal Arts & Sciences

For the first time ever, UNC Charlotte’s speech team has placed in the top 20 in a national speech tournament, competing against more than 150 teams from across the nation in the National Forensic Association’s championship tournament held in Santa Ana, California.

Alexander Gordon, 72, an associate professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, died May 13 at Rush Hospital in Chicago, Illinois. 
Gordon earned a Ph.D. in mathematics from Moscow Institute of Electronic Machine Building in 1988. He joined the University as an assistant professor in 2006 and was promoted to associate professor in 2012. Prior to joining UNC Charlotte, he worked in the Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology at University of Rochester from 2002 to 2006, first as an analyst/programmer lead and later as an assistant professor.

Jennifer Munroe, Sarah Pollock and Lane Rhodes recently received the 2018-19 Excellence in Teaching Awards presented by the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences (CLAS). The three were lauded for the innovative ways they challenge and engage students, including through research opportunities, interactive lectures and real-time projects.

The Charlotte Teachers Institute is sponsoring the community event “The Art and Chemistry of Light” on Tuesday, May 21, at the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art.

This “Teachers as Scholars” event will feature presentations and discussions with local educators who studied the topic together in a 2018 Charlotte Teachers Institute (CTI) seminar, including UNC Charlotte chemistry professor Tom Schmedake and 11 Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools teachers.

Cato College of Education professor Chuang Wang and student Maria Garcia are the recipients of the International Education Awards (IEA) presented by the Office of International Programs.

James Cook, a professor in the Department of Psychological Science at UNC Charlotte, has received the 2019 Outstanding Educator Award, a top honor given by the Society for Community Research and Action (SCRA), Division 27 of the American Psychological Association.

UNC Charlotte’s Botanical Gardens is holding a new three-day festival that combines nature and fine arts.

Bummed out by ongoing work stress? Tempted to reach for yet another cup of coffee to cope? Resist the temptation—unless you want to darken an already gray mood to pitch-black, according to a UNC Charlotte study on how caffeine affects people dealing with chronic stress.

For his outstanding contributions to industrial and organizational psychology, UNC Charlotte Psychological Science Department Chair Eric Heggestad has been named a Fellow of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP).

Heggestad was one of 20 distinguished industrial-organizational psychologists afforded this status at SIOP’s 34th annual conference.

Clark Walton will present “Take Control of Your Digital Footprint” at 2 p.m., Wednesday, April 17, in the Cone University Center, Room 113.

In his presentation, Walton will speak to the computer evidence people leave behind and how it is used in the courtroom.