Dr. Sultana Khan receives the UNC Board of Governors Award for Teaching Excellence
Kesha Williams
May 02, 2006 Dr. Sultana A. Khan, a professor of physics at Elizabeth City State University, is among the 2006 faculty to win the UNC Board of Governors Award for Teaching Excellence. The Board of Governors of the 16-campus University of North Carolina selected 16 of its most outstanding faculty to receive its 12th annual Awards for Excellence in Teaching. During a recognition luncheon to be held in conjunction with the Board’s May 12 meeting, a faculty member from each UNC campus will receive a commemorative bronze medallion and a $7,500 cash prize. Before arriving at ECSU in 1978, Khan earned baccalaureate and master’s degrees in physics from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh, and a doctorate in the field from the Scientific and Medical University in Grenoble, France. Khan, who has mentored ECSU students, staff, and faculty, wants her students to "think outside the box" and describes physics as "a science of discovery, a quest to understand our physical world and the laws that govern it." She has led efforts to revamp ECSU’s physics curriculum to attract more students to the field and secured federal grant funding for campus initiatives such as ATOM (Accentuating Technical Opportunities for Minorities) and a solar energy project. With her guidance, many former students have found jobs in private or government laboratories or been admitted to graduate and professional schools. The 16 recipients, representing an array of academic disciplines, were nominated by special committees on their home campuses and selected by the Board of Governors Committee on Personnel and Tenure, chaired by Charles Mercer of Raleigh. The awards will be presented by UNC President Erskine Bowles and Board of Governors Chairman J. Bradley Wilson of Cary. Established by the Board of Governors in April 1994 to underscore the importance of teaching and to reward good teaching across the University, the awards are given annually to a tenured faculty member from each UNC campus. Winners must have taught at their present institutions at least seven years. No one may receive the award more than once. The oldest public university in America, the University of North Carolina encompasses all 16 of North Carolina’s public institutions that grant baccalaureate degrees and enrolls nearly 200,000 students. UNC campuses support a broad array of distinguished liberal-arts programs, two medical schools and one teaching hospital, two law schools, a veterinary school, a school of pharmacy, 12 nursing programs, 15 schools of education, three schools of engineering, and a specialized school for performing artists. Also under the University umbrella are UNC-TV with its 11-station statewide broadcast network, and the NC School of Science and Mathematics, the nation’s first public residential high school for gifted students. (This modified press release was originally prepared by the UNC – General Administration.) Distributed by
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