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UNL in the national news: September 2014
Media outlets across the nation featured and cited UNL sources on many occasions in September.
Two science stories dominated coverage, one about a ground-breaking physics experiment and the second about a nanotechnology device that could improve breast cancer detection.
A number of science publications reported on the experiment by Timothy Gay and Joan Dreiling, physics, that confirmed an explanation why the double helix structure of DNA molecules has a right-handed twist. Their work was reported by Nature, Scientific American, Physics Today, and Chemistry World, among others. Stories began appearing in mid-September and continued through the end of the month.
Ravi Saraf, chemical and biomolecular engineering, and graduate researcher Chieu Van Nguyen, received worldwide coverage for perfecting a nanotechnology device that can detect breast tumors too small and deep to be felt with the fingers. Their thin-film device could help reduce breast cancer mortality by improving early detection. Stories began appearing Sept. 9.
The Horse magazine reported Sept. 1 that Kathleen P. Anderson, animal science, had received the 2014 Equine Science Award. Anderson also was featured on BTN’s LiveBig program on Sept. 24.
An interdisciplinary team created to probe climate’s impact on groundwater was featured Sept. 8 by Phys.org. Team members are Yusong Li, civil engineering, Zhenghong Tang, community and regional planning; Shannon Bartelt-Hunt, civil engineering; Xu Li, civil engineering; Dan Snow, Nebraska Water Center; Eric Thompson, economics; and David Rosenbaum, economics.
Nancy Busch, dean of libraries, was quoted in the Tulsa World Sept. 7 in a report about the transformation of Love Library into a learning commons area. The story originated in the Omaha World-Herald.
Kenneth Cassman, agronomy, and Donald Wilhite, climate science, talked about worldwide drought in a Sept. 6 story that appeared on NBCNews.com
A national project to improve diversity in college computer science programs was featured in a Sept. 24 Bloomberg Businessweek article. UNL is one of 15 universities participating in the three-year program.
The Armenian Weekly reported Sept. 17 on UNL’s plan to host a major conference in March 2015 on the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide. It is organized by Bedross Der Matossian, history. Another publication, the Armenian Reporter, announced the upcoming conference in a Sept. 27 article.
Wheeler Winston Dixon, film studies, offered his observations why YouTube is such a successful marketing tool in a Sept. 8 story on Ecommerce Times. Wall Street Cheat Sheet also used his comments in a Sept. 17 story. Dixon also contributed to a Sept. 25 article in The Advocate, in Louisiana, about an unusual one-screen, throwback theater in New Orleans.
The Daily Herald, serving the suburban Chicago area, featured a Sept. 1 story about Nebraska efforts to encourage more lawyers to practice in rural areas. The story, which originated in the Washington Post, featured Alissa Doerr, a second-year student at the Nebraska College of Law, who participated in a summer clerkship with a lawyer in Knox County. The Associated Press also produced a story about the program on Sept. 6.
Other September Law College news included Sept. 19 coverage by ABC News, the Associated Press and others, of an appearance by U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts; and a Sept. 18 report by the Associated Press describing how student Chris Schmidt and the student-led Community Legal Education Project used Twitter to teach Lincoln eighth-graders about the U.S. Constitution.
Jolene Dreier, a senior in the College of Journalism and Mass Communications, was quoted by the Chronicle of Higher Education in a Sept. 3 piece about student borrowing.
Former Husker fullback Aaron Gillaspie, who holds a management degree from UNL, was interviewed for a Sept. 21 New York Post article about the South Bronx charter elementary school he runs.
East Campus’s new statutes of the four U.S. agriculture secretaries from Nebraska was covered by the High Plains Journal. Ronnie Green, vice chancellor of the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources, was quoted as saying there’s plenty of room to honor future ag secretaries from Nebraska.
A recent study by John Hibbing and Kevin Smith, political science, about the biological underpinnings of political differences, was featured by the British Psychological Society on Sept. 4.
The Phoenix New Times looked back two decades to discuss a seminal study by UNL food science researchers that concluded that mozzarella is indeed the best cheese for pizza. The 1994 work was done by Beatriz Matzdorf, Susan L. Cuppett (emeritus), Laurie J. Keeler and Robert W. Hutkins, food science.
Nam Kyu Kim, political science, investigated the relationship between economic shocks and political coups in a Sept. 23 post on the Washington Post’s Monkey Cage political science blog.
UNL agronomy and horticulture professor Donald Lee and his graduate research assistant Grace Troupe were given a nod by the Iowa State Daily Sept. 3 for their work with ISU researchers to develop an educational smartphone app about genetically engineered foods. The Farm Journal reported Sept. 10 on another ag-related app developed by UNL personnel, a beef cattle scoring system. That app was developed by Rick Rasby, beef extension specialist.
After the C-Span bus rolled onto the UNL campus Sept. 10, James Linder, interim NU president, boarded to discuss enrollment and tuition at NU’s flagship.
David Loope, earth and atmospheric sciences, was quoted in a Sept. 23 LiveScience article about the Moqui Marbles, the round iron-coated stones that litter the ground at sites in Arizona and Utah.
Indian Country Today Media Network reported Sept. 10 that Alex Mallory, a history and political science junior, was UNL’s first recipient of a Udall scholarship. That $5,000 award goes to students who plan careers related to the environment and to Native American students who plan careers related to tribal public policy. Mallory is a member of the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska. On Sept. 15, Indian Country Today reported that Mallory also has been named a National Child Awareness Month Youth Ambassador and will receive funding and training to lead an initiative to educate Native youth leaders on suicide prevention techniques.
A Daily Princetonian columnist lamenting her email addiction turned to University of Nebraska-Lincoln research (by Barney McCoy, journalism) that reported 68 percent of college students check email during class.
Examiner.com gave an admiring review of a performance by Christopher Marks, music, on a 6,334-pipe Aeolian-Skinner organ in Independence, Mo.
Dennis Molfese and concussion research at the Center for Brain, Biology and Behavior was featured Sept. 5 on BTN’s LiveBig Program.
The Athens Banner-Herald quoted the U.S. Drought Monitor and UNL in a Sept. 6 story about drought in Georgia. The drought monitor and UNL’s National Drought Mitigation Center also were mentioned in several late September reports about the lingering California drought and the looming potential for water rationing.
Inside Higher Ed spoke with Josephine Potuto, law, for a Sept. 9 story about the NCAA’s decision to allow Penn State football to return to post-season competition. Potuto is UNL’s faculty athletics representative at the NCAA.
The “Really Obvious Preparedness Facts” videos created by Mark Robertson, emergency preparedness coordinator, were featured in a Sept. 23 story by the Associated Press.
Farm Journal reported Sept. 23 on joint research by UNL and Purdue University on the next generation of soybean cultivars for the northern U.S. James Specht, agronomy and horticulture, said the Dt2 gene is a “perfect genetic marker” for identifying semi-determinacy in soybean seeds and seedlings.
The Entrepreneurial Index produced annually by UNL Bureau of Business Research and economists Eric Thompson and William Walstad, was featured Sept. 2 in the Pittsburgh Business Times ; Sept. 5 in the Philadelphia Business Journal; and Sept. 8 in the Albany Business Review. New York ranked third among the 50 states according to the 2014 report, while Pennsylvania plunged to No. 38.
UNL’s emphasis on student retention in its effort to boost enrollment to 30,000 by 2020 was covered by the Associated Press Sept. 16. USA Today touted UNL as one of the ten best tailgating schools on Sept. 10. In a Sept. 3 piece, Kiplinger concluded that UNL helps make Lincoln one of the** ten best places to live cheaply.** In a Sept. 3 story, the Times Reporter in New Philadelphia, Ohio, credited the University of Nebraska-Lincoln for assisting Kent State Tuscarawas in developing a new agribusiness program.
This is a monthly column featuring UNL faculty, administrators and staff in the national news. National media often work with University Communications to identify and connect with UNL sources for the purpose of including the university’s research, expertise and programming in published or broadcasted work.
Faculty, administration, student and staff appearances in the national media are logged at http://newsroom.unl.edu/inthenews/ . If you have additions to this list or suggestions for national news stories, contact Leslie Reed at lreed5@unl.edu or 402-472-2059.
