Huskers who earned recent honors include faculty/staff Dipra Jha, Mark Hayes, Pat McBride, Kaci Nash, Matt Spangler, Mark Svoboda, Pat Tereault and William G. Thomas III. Other honors include a national award for the LGBTQA+ Resource Center and Hearst National Championship finishes for three journalism students.

Faculty/Staff

• Dipra Jha, assistant professor of practice in nutrition and health sciences, served as professor in residence at the Oberoi Center of Learning and Development in New Delhi, India, from May 12-31. As professor of residence, Jha developed and delivered a series of workshops for luxury hospitality professionals. The center is part of Oberoi Group, a hospitality conglomerate that owns and operates some of the most recognized luxury hotels in the world. For more information, click here.

• Pat McBride, associate dean of enrollment management and director of New Student Enrollment, will receive the Kansas Monk Award during Benedictine College’s reunion weekend on June 17. The award honors graduates who have distinguished themselves in a professional field, showed a prominence of service to the civic community, demonstrated outstanding loyalty to the alma mater and reflected honor on the college through family and social life.

• Matt Spangler, associate professor and beef genetics specialist with Nebraska Extension, received the Beef Improvement Federation’s Continuing Service Award on June 2 during the organization’s annual convention in Athens, Georgia. The award honors individuals who have made major contributions to the federation. For more information, click here.

• Mark Svoboda, director of the National Drought Mitigation Center, and Mike Hayes, professor of natural resources and former director of the center, contributed to a recently released European Union report on disaster risk management. The report, “Science for Disaster Risk Management 2017: Knowing Better and Losing Less,” is designed to illustrate what scientists know about disasters and to harness that information to save lives and money through prevention. Contributions were made by 273 scientists from 26 countries and 172 organizations. Svoboda and Hayes contributed to the chapter dedicated to drought. For more information on the report, click here.

• Pat Tetreault, director of the LGBTQA+ Resource Center, received the Alumni of Distinction honor during Kansas State University’s Lavender Graduation on May 7. The honor is reserved for Wildcat graduates who have made significant impacts on the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.

• William G. Thomas III, professor of history, earned the 2017 Hubbell Prize for best article published in “Civil War History” during 2016. His study, “Places of Exchange: An Analysis of Human and Material Flows in Civil War Alexandria, Virginia,” examined geographic, military and topographical conditions in Alexandria during the Civil War. Thomas co-authored the work with Kaci Nash, a research associate fellow at the Center for Digital Research in the Humanities at Nebraska, and Robert Shepard of the University of Iowa. For more information on the publication, click here.

Students

• Calla Kessler, Lauren Brown-Hulme and Chris Bowling earned honors during the 2017 Hearst National Championships, which were celebrated June 1 in San Francisco. Kessler, a journalism student, won first place in photojournalism. Brown-Hulme, a journalism and political science major, received an Article of the Year award for “Shepherd of the Streets, which is part of a student-led “Wounds of Whiteclay” depth-report, and finished in second place in the writing category. Bowling, a journalism major, was a finalist in the writing category. For more information on the Hearst honors, click here.

• Zach Penrice, Marcella Mercer and Calla Kessler, all journalism students, earned Mark of Excellence awards from the Society of Professional Journalists. The awards honor the best in student journalism in six categories. Penrice was the national winner in radio sports reporting for “Nebraska Football — Senior Day and the 29th Senior.” Mercer and Kessler were national winners in the feature writing category (large school, 10,000-plus students) for “Whiteclay, Caring for Kids with Fetal Alcohol Disorders.” The story was featured in the award-winning “Wounds of Whiteclay” depth-report. For more information on the honors, click here.

• Amanda Sanford, an agronomy graduate student, has been awarded the Arthur William Sampson Fellowship in Pasture Management. The fellowship is awarded annually to a Nebraska graduate student conducting research in range or pasture ecology and management. Awarded from the Center for Grassland Studies, this fellowship includes a 12-month graduate stipend and begins Aug. 1. Sanford’s research involves studying the effect of grazing strategy on dung distribution and nutrient cycling in pastures. Over the summer months, grazing trials will be conducted at the Barta Brothers Ranch near Ainsworth. Using a drone to take images of pastures at the ranch, Sanford will use a geographic information system to model the dung distribution spatially and temporally, helping researchers better understand how nutrients are returned to and cycled through the grazing ecosystem. Sanford is advices by Martha Mamo, professor of agronomy and horticulture, and Jerry Volesky, professor and a range and forage specialist with Nebraska Extension.

Departments/Colleges/Units

• The LGBTQA+ Resource Center received the Commitment to Social Justice Education award from the American College Personnel Association’s Commission for Social Justice Educators. The award honors a unit that demonstrates a commitment to social justice education and development, training or programming. This is the second year the ACPA has recognized the center, as Pat Tetreault, director of the center, received the Coalition for LGBT Awareness Public Service Award in 2016. For more information on the most recent honor, click here.

This column is a regular Friday feature of Nebraska Today. Faculty, staff and students can submit achievements to be considered for this column via email to achievements@unl.edu. For more information, call 402-472-8515.