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    <h3>About me</h3>

    <p>I am originally from Río Piedras, Puerto Rico. In this website, you can find information about my work, some of my personal hobbies, and other random and useless pieces of information.</p>

    <p>I am a Professor in the Department of Software and Information Systems in the College of Computing and Informatics at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte. From July 2015-June 2019, I was Associate Dean of the College of Computing and Informatics. I served as a Faculty Fellow (2019-2021) at the Graduate School working on graduate funding and later in diversity initiatives. I am currently serving as Program Officer at NSF in the EWF Cluster.</p>

    <p>I graduated from la Academia Nuestra Señora de la Providencia in Cupey, Clase 80! Attended <a href="http://www.bsu.edu">Ball State</a> in Muncie, Indiana (David Letterman calls it the Harvard of Muncie) where I completed a B.A. and an M.S. Then I attended <a href="http://www.gwu.edu/">The George Washington University</a>, Washington DC where I completed my D.Sc.  I worked 6 years at the <a href="http://www.nrl.navy.mil/">Naval Research Lab</a> and did a 1 semester Visiting Professor at the <a href="http://www.usna.edu/">US Naval Academy</a>, Annapolis, MD. I taught 4 years at <a href="http://www.uprm.edu/">University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez</a> and then moved to <a href="http://www.vt.edu/">Virginia Tech</a> in 2000. I have been at UNCC since July 2015. During January of 2022, I was a visiting Professor at Northeastern, working in the <a href="https://cic.northeastern.edu/">Center for Inclusive Computing</a>.</p>

    <p>At Virginia Tech, I was Associate Dean of the <a href="http://graduateschool.vt.edu/">Graduate School</a> and Director of the Office of Recruitment and Diversity Initiatives. I was also Associate Department Head and Director for Graduate Studies in the <a href="https://cs.vt.edu/">Department of Computer Science</a>. I served in numerous committees and even a <a href="https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/handle/10919/95894">Provost Task Force</a>. I was a founding member of the <a href="http://www.hfsc.org.vt.edu">Hispanic Caucus</a> and a former chair of that group.</p>

    <p>You can find my <a href="cv-perez-quinones.pdf">full CV here</a>.</p>

    <h3>How to Pronounce My Name</h3>
    <p>Click on the play triangle below to hear a pronunciation of my first name and my surnames. The audio is courtesy of Apple's speech synthetizer, but only if you use one of their Spanish voices.</p>

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            <h4 class="list-group-item-heading">First Name: Manuel</h4>
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            <h4 class="list-group-item-heading">Surnames: P&eacute;rez-Qui&ntilde;ones</h4>
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    <h3>Wait! Two last names?</h3>
    <p>I have a writeup about why Latinos use <a href="twolastnames.html">two last names</a>.</p>

    <h3>How to write the accents</h3>
    <p>My name has "weird characters" according to people that have never left their house. If your software doesn’t allow you to copy/paste my name from anywhere in the site, you can type the characters directly as follows:</p>

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        <tr><th>To get...</th><th>Mac OS<br>Type this</th><th>Windows<br>Type this</th></tr>
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      <tr><td>é</td><td>Option-e followed by e</td><td>ALT key type 0233 on the numeric key pad</td></tr>
      <tr><td>ñ</td><td>Option-n followed by n</td><td>ALT key and type 0241 on the numeric key pad</td></tr>
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        <tr><td colspan="3"><em>On Windows, the character will appear when you let up the ALT key. If you don’t have a numeric keypad, then you should Google alternative ways to type accents with Windows.</em></td></tr>
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    <h3>Where are you from?</h3>
    <p>Depending on how you ask, I am Puertorrican, Caribe&ntilde;o, Hispanic, Latino or American.</p>
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    <li>I was born and raised in Puerto Rico, home of the happiest people in the world according to some studies (that are no longer linkable on the web).</li>

    <li>See "<a href="http://www.pbs.org/americanfamily/latino3.html">What it means to be Latino</a>" to get a better sense of the terms Latino, Hispanic, etc.</li>

    <li>There was a very <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/24/AR2006022400893.html">nice writeup in the Washington Post travel section (Feb 2006)</a> about Puerto Rico, done by four different writers each giving a different perspective of vacationing in Puerto Rico.</li>
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    <h3>Professional Recognitions</h3>
    <p>I have been fortunate and honored to be recognized for my efforts to increase diversity in computing.</p>

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<!--         <p>2020: <a href="https://tedx.uncc.edu/profile/manuel-p-rez-qui-ones">I was selected</a> to participate in the <a href="https://tedx.uncc.edu/">TEDx UNCCharlotte</a> event that will take place in March 27th, 2020. Press release <a href="https://inside.uncc.edu/news-features/2020-01-21/tedxunccharlotte-2020-speakers-address-%E2%80%98thinking-future-thinking-forward%E2%80%99">available here</a>. The full list of speakers can be seen <a href="https://tedx.uncc.edu/speakers">here</a>.</p>
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        <p>2024: I was elected to the <a href="https://cra.org/2024-cra-board-of-directors-election-results/">CRA Board of Directors</a>. Here is a <a href="https://cci.charlotte.edu/2024/03/01/unc-charlotte-professor-manuel-perez-quinones-elected-to-computing-research-association-board-of-directors/">press release from my college</a> about my election.</p>

        <p>2023-2024: I served as a Program Officer (Rotator) at the <a href="https://beta.nsf.gov/funding/opportunities/education-workforce-program">Education and Workforce Cluster</a> in the <a href="https://www.nsf.gov/dir/index.jsp?org=CISE">Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) Directorate</a> at <a href="https://nsf.gov">NSF</a>.

        <p>2019: I was named <a href="https://awards.acm.org/award_winners/perez-quinones_2895423">ACM Distinguished Member</a> for Outstanding Educational Contributions to Computing. Press release <a href="https://www.acm.org/media-center/2019/october/distinguished-members-2019"> available here</a> and <a href="https://cci.uncc.edu/news/2019-10-31/unc-charlotte-professor-earns-industry-honor">here</a>.</p>

        <p>2018: I received the <a href="https://cra.org/crn/2018/03/juan-e-gilbert-and-manuel-perez-quinones-receive-the-2018-a-nico-habermann-award/">A. Nico Habermann Award</a> from the Computing Research Association. The award is given annually to a person who has made outstanding contributions aimed at increasing the numbers and/or successes of underrepresented members in the computing research community.</p>

        <p>2017: I was named ACM Senior Member for "demonstrated performance through technical leadership, and technical or professional contributions."</p>

        <p>2017: I received the Richard A. Tapia Achievement Award for Scientific Scholarship, Civic Science and Diversifying Computing, given annually to an individual who is a distinguished computational scientist, computer scientist or computer engineer and who is making significant contributions to civic areas such as teaching, mentoring, advising, and building and serving communities. More info <a href="https://tapiaconference.cmd-it.org/about/richard-tapia-award/dr-manuel-a-perez-quinones/">here</a>.</p>

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            <p class="card-text"><a href="https://inside.uncc.edu/news-features/2020-01-21/tedxunccharlotte-2020-speakers-address-%E2%80%98thinking-future-thinking-forward%E2%80%99">2020 TEDx UNCCharlotte</a></p>
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          <img src="assets/images/thumbnails/MPQ-ACM.jpeg" class="card-img-top" alt="ACM Distinguished member">
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            <p class="card-text">2019 ACM Distinguished Member</a></p>
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          <img src="assets/images/thumbnails/haberman-award.jpg" class="card-img-top" alt="Habermann Award, presented by Kathryn McKinley">
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            <p class="card-text"><a href="https://cra.org/about/awards/a-nico-habermann-award/#2018">2018 CRA's Nico Habermann Award</a></p>
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            <p class="card-text"><a href="http://www.tapiaconference.org/about/richard-a-tapia-award/">2017 Richard Tapia Award</a></p>
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    <h3>My passions</h3>

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        <h5 class="card-title">My Family</h5>
        <p class="card-text"><small>I am married to <a href="https://clas-pages.uncc.edu/opadill1/">Dr. Olga Padilla-Falto</a>, and we have 2 wonderful and smart <i>kids</i> (they are not kids anymore). I also have 3 siblings, 2 nieces, and a loving mother. My dad passed away a few years ago, but we still remember him fondly.</small></p>
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      <img src="assets/images/LuvBBall.jpg" class="card-img-top" alt="baseball">
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        <h5 class="card-title">Baseball</h5>
        <p class="card-text"><small>I enjoy watching baseball. I have visited a number of baseball parks, including: Memorial Stadium (old stadium for the Orioles), <a href="http://baltimore.orioles.mlb.com/bal/ballpark/">Oriole Park at Camden Yards</a>, Philadelphia Phillies (Veterans Stadium), <a href="http://boston.redsox.mlb.com/bos/ballpark/">Boston's Fenway Park</a>, <a href="http://losangeles.angels.mlb.com/ana/ballpark/">Angel Stadium of Anaheim</a>, <a href="http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/chc/ballpark/">Chicago Cubs Wrigley Field</a>, <a href="http://colorado.rockies.mlb.com/col/ballpark/">Colorado's Coors Field</a>, <a href="http://losangeles.dodgers.mlb.com/la/ballpark/'">Dodger Stadium</a>, <a hef="http://washington.nationals.mlb.com/was/ballpark/">Nationals Park</a>, and SunTrust Park in Atlanta. That list includes the four oldest stadiums!</small></p>
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        <h5 class="card-title">Salsa</h5>
        <p class="card-text"><small>I enjoy listening to salsa music. I have seen in concert most of the leading bands including Fania All Stars, Rubén Blades, Willie Colón, Eddie Palmieri, El Gran Combo, Irakere, Roberto Roena, Cheo Feliciano, Ismael Miranda, Gilberto Santa Rosa, Tito Puente, y al gran Ismael Rivera.</small></p>
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      <img src="assets/images/Volleyball79.png" class="card-img-top" alt="look at all that hair!">
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        <h5 class="card-title">Volleyball</h5>
        <p class="card-text"><small>Once upon a time, when I had 2 good knees, I used to play a lot of volleyball. I started when I was in 8th grade and played through college. In high school I was the captain of the varsity. At Ball State I played in the reserve team one year. Yeah, I know what you are thinking, "aren't you too short to play volleyball?" Yes, yes I am.  I also refereed games in Puerto Rico and hold a coach training level 1 from the <a href="http://fivb.org">FIVB</a>.</small></p>
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