Recent honors collected by the UNL community include recognition for faculty Dawn Braithwaite and Susan Swearer; students Alissa Doerr, Taylor Fritsch, Emily Sisco, Elizabeth Straley and Ethiyal Raj Wilson; as well as UNL’s Alpha Phi chapter of Gamma Theta Upsilon. Read on for more information about each award.

Faculty/Staff

Dawn O Braithwaite, Willa Cather Professor and chair of communication studies, will receive the James Ferris Award for Contributions to Communication and Disability Studies from the National Communication Association Disability Issues Caucus. Dawn and co-honoree Teresa Thompson (University of Dayton) are among the earliest disability communication researchers in the communication discipline and published the “Handbook of Communication and People with Disabilities: Research and Application” (2000, Erlbaum). The award will be presented at the annual meeting of the National Communication Association in Las Vegas in November.

Susan Swearer, Willa Cather Professor of educational psychology, has recently been featured in two anti-bullying publications, including the launch of the “I Am A Witness” advertising campaign and a New Yorker article on cyberbullying. Designed by the Ad Council, Swearer was one of several researchers who consulted on the advertising campaign. In the New Yorker, Swearer is quoted on how bullies typically feel justified in their behaviors and sometimes don’t realize that their actions are bullying.

Students

The Nebraska Law Team of Emily Sisco, Taylor Fritsch and Alissa Doerr won the 2015 Agricultural Law Quiz Bowl at the American Agricultural Law Association annual symposium in Charleston, South Carolina. The team competed against four other teams in a Jeopardy-style competition that tested knowledge of both agricultural law topics and other foundational areas such as property, torts and civil procedure. The team won the competition by defeating the team from Penn State University School of Law in the final round.

Ethiyal Raj Wilson, a physics and electrical engineering major, won third place in the NDConnect Undergraduate Research Competition for his presentation “Boron Carbide for Neutron Voltaics in Deep Space Missions and Other Applications.” The event was part of the Notre Dame Competition in Nanoscience and Nanoengineering. Fourteen finalists were invited to present their research at the Notre Dame Center for Nano Science and Technology on Oct. 23. Wilson took home $1,000 for placing in the competition.

Elizabeth Straley, doctoral candidate in sociology, has been awarded a National Science Foundation grant to study the relationship between experiencing discrimination and mental and physical health of non-heterosexual students. The connection between health, stigma, and brain processing has not been examined, so this research could help scientists understand how the brain regulates health in conjunction with social experiences. She will use the Center for Brain, Biology, and Behavior to measure brain activity.

Departments/Units/Groups

Gamma Theta Upsilon, the international geographical honor society, has recognized UNL’s Alpha Phi chapter as a 2015 Honors Chapter. Alpha Phi is one of 12 chapters globally to earn the recognition. The award is earned by increasing chapter inductees, holding geography events, developing and maintaining a chapter website or social media presence, and submitting an annual report to the society. For more information, click here.

This column is a regular 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.