Achievements | Honors, appointments and publications for July 19

Recent achievements for the campus community were earned by Kelli Boling, Deepak Ghimire, Eileen Hebets, Bijesh Maharjan, Barney McCoy, Jessica Shoemaker, Marilyn Wolf, the Office of Graduate Studies and the Public Relations Student Society of America Chapter.

Honors

• Kelli Boling, assistant professor in the College of Journalism and Mass Communications, earned the 2024 Lillian Lodge Kopenhaver Early-Career Woman Scholar Award. The honor is sponsored by the Lillian Lodge Kopenhaver Center for the Advancement of Women in Communication at Florida International University and the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication Commission on the Status of Women. Boling will be formally presented with the award during AEJMC’s annual conference in Philadelphia this August. 
• Deepak Ghimire, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Agronomy, earned the 2024 Nelson Yield-Limiting Factors Graduate Student Scholarship from the American Society of Agronomy. The scholarship is intended to encourage students to pursue research and leadership in support of improved diagnostic techniques and solutions to yield-limiting factors in agronomy. As a graduate student, Ghimire has been actively involved in several organizations within tri-societies and more, including the university’s Agronomy and Horticulture Graduate Student Association, Nebraska Extension’s Farmbits podcast and the American Society of Agronomy-Crop Science Society of America-Soil Science Society of America Graduate Student Committee. 
• Eileen Hebets, George Holmes Professor in the School of Biological Sciences, was named a fellow of the Animal Behavior Society. Fellows are members who have engaged in research in animal behavior for at least ten years and, in the view of the elected officers and current fellows, have made distinguished contributions to the field. She was previously president of the ABS and named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
• Bijesh Maharjan, associate professor in agronomy and horticulture; and Gary Stone, associate Extension educator at the Panhandle Research Extension and Education Center, both received the Commendation Award from the Nebraska Soil and Water Conservation Society. The award recognizes SWCS members for service to their chapter or council of chapters.
• The film, "Running Towards the Fire – A War Correspondent's Story," was awarded the Grand Prize for best TV documentary at the Marina del Rey Film Festival June 27. The film was co-directed and produced by Barney McCoy, Hitchcock Professor of Broadcasting. The film vividly captures the pivotal roles war correspondents played during the Allies 1944 D-Day invasion of Europe and subsequent defeat of Nazi Germany and the Axis powers in 1945. The war correspondents were unsung heroes who risked their lives, informing the world with firsthand accounts of the bravery and sacrifice of the American and Allied forces who fought the Nazis. 
• Marilyn Wolf, Elmer E. Koch Professor in the School of Computing, earned the 2024 Association of Computing Machinery Special Interest Group on Design Automation Distinguished Service Award. The award is given to individuals who have dedicated many years of their career in extraordinary services to promoting, leading, or creating ACM and SIGDA programs or events. Wolf received the award for her “extensive and impactful services to the electronic design automation community,” including her roles as the founding editor-in-chief of ACM Transactions on Embedded Computing Systems and co-founder of Embedded Systems Week, the CODES+ISSS conference, and the ACM/Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers International Symposium on Machine Learning for CAD.
• In recognition of the Office of Graduate Studies’ long history of aiding active military and veterans in pursuing opportunities for graduate education, Joe Brownell, director of the Military and Veterans’ Success Center, presented Eva Bachman, Nathan Bruss, and Alisha Hanshaw with a customized challenge coin. Challenge coins symbolize morale, hard work and esprit de corps. When presented to civilians, they are intended as an acknowledgement of support for military and veterans. 1
• The Public Relations Student Society of America Chapter at UNL received the 2024 Star Chapter Award from PRSSA National for its excellence in programming and service. The award is considered the gold standard for college-level chapters striving to achieve excellence. Throughout the 2023-2024 academic year, UNL PRSSA students showed their commitment to the highest chapter and campus leadership standards. For example, in April, the team organized a chapter trip to Chicago to explore professional opportunities in public relations. Students toured national advertising and public relations firms like Weber Shandwick, Leo Burnett, Havas and Edelman and connected with UNL alumni living and working in Chicago. 

Appointments

• Jessica Shoemaker, Steinhart Foundation Distinguished Professor of Law, was elected president of the Association for Law, Property and Society during their annual meeting May 29-31 in Sydney, Australia. Shoemaker was also a presenter and moderator during the conference.