Recent accomplishments earned by members of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln community include honors, awards and publications collected by James Van Etten, members of the College of Education and Human Sciences, and designers of the renovation of Manter Hall lab spaces.

Departments, units, facilities

• The redesign of Manter Hall received a 2016 Interior Design Excellence Award from the Great Plains Chapter of the International Interior Design Association. The education category award was presented to HDR, an Omaha-based architectural, engineering and consulting firm that worked on the project. The award cited the large viewing windows used in Manter Hall’s first floor hallway, allowing biological sciences lab work to be put on display. For more information on the Manter project, click here.

• The College of Education and Human Sciences hosted its annual CEHS awards on April 22 at the Sheldon Museum of Art, with a reception following. Awards were presented to: Lori Rausch and Cindy DeRyke for the CEHS Annual Staff Award; Dipra Jha, Lorraine Males, Linda Young, Wayne Babchuk and Mary Beth Lehmanowsky for the CEHS Outstanding Teaching Award; Michael James for the CEHS Distinguished Research/Creative Career Award; Theresa Catalano for the CEHS Emerging Scholar Research/Creative Award; Janos Zempleni for the CEHS Faculty Student Mentoring Award; Aileen Garcia for the CEHS Graduate Student Research and Creativity Award; Nathaniel D. M. Jenkins for the CEHS Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant Award; Scott Napolitano, Ed Daly and Elizabeth Lewis for the University Distinguished Teaching Award; William Lopez for the Donald R. and Mary Lee Swanson Award for Teaching Excellence.

Faculty and Staff

• James Van Etten, William Allington Distinguished Professor of Plant Pathology, has received the Award of Distinction from the American Phytopathological Society. Van Etten becomes just the 15th researcher to earn the honor since its inception in 1967. According to the society, the award recognizes those who have made “truly exceptional contributions” to the field of plant pathology. For more information, click here.

Students

• Taylor Bolam, Layla Younis and Zoe Hatfield have been awarded U.S. Department of State Critical Language Scholarships. The program is part of a U.S. government effort to expand dramatically the number of Americans studying and mastering “critical” foreign languages. The scholarships are highly competitive and offer students an intensive, in-country language immersion experience. The awards can also serve as a gateway to encourage students to other international scholarship programs, like the Fulbright U.S. student program. Bolam, a senior economics major, will study Russian at a host location in Vladimir, Russia. Younis, a senior English and journalism major, will study Arabic in Ibri, Oman. Hatfield, a junior global studies and political science major, will study Chinese in Tainan, Taiwan. For more information, click here.

• Emma Himes, a junior majoring in English, Spanish and global studies, has been selected to participate in the Fulbright Summer Institute and will study at the United Kingdom’s University of Bristol. The four-week summer program will focus on slavery in the Atlantic Ocean region. It will relate Bristol as the port city to the triangle slave trade between the United Kingdom, Western Africa and United States plantations. For more information about Fulbright Summer Institutes, click here.

• Zach Paris, music major, was honored with a DownBeat Award for Blues/Pop/Rock Soloist Graduate College Outstanding Performances. The video submitted by Paris for the application was part of a non-degree recital he performed in the spring of 2015. This year marks the 39th year of he Annual Student Music Awards at DownBeat.

• Amanda Vodvarka, agronomy major, has been chosen for the American Society of Agronomy National Student Recognition Program. This program recognizes outstanding undergraduate seniors in agronomy, crop, soil and environmental science. Vodvarka says job experiences, internships, becoming a UNL teaching assistant and being involved in the UNL Agronomy Club and Crops Judging Team have allowed her to grow, gain knowledge and the experience necessary to succeed. Recipients of this award were published in the April issue of CSA News. Vodvarka also received a plaque and the opportunity to apply for the Frank D. Keim Graduate Fellowship.

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