Recent achievements for the campus community were earned by Matthew Carter, Zoë Cope, Charles Dowd, Danielle Durham, Mark Griep, Amit Jhala, Calla Kessler, Benjamin Kunz, Mallory Lane, Rachel McGown, Megan Peterson, Chris Timm and Janos Zempleni.
Faculty/Staff
Mark Griep, professor of chemistry; Bev DeVore-Wedding, a post-doctoral research associate in chemistry; Janyce Woodard of Little Priest Tribal College in Winnebago; and Hank Miller of Nebraska Indian Community College in Macy have published the “Lab Manual for Connecting Chemistry to the Tribal Community: Two Semesters of Chemistry Experiments and Teachings” (Keeper’s Cottage Press, July 2018). The labs in the manual were created for a two-semester general, organic and biochemistry course sequence at Nebraska’s two tribal colleges but are adaptable for use by other tribal colleges and community colleges. All labs have background information, community connections, the lab protocols and procedures, and suggestions for the lab report.
Amit Jhala, associate professor of agronomy and horticulture and extension weed management specialist, was awarded an Outstanding Associate Editor Award by the Canadian Journal of Plant Science. The annual award recognizes an associate editor who has handled and reviewed scientific papers submitted to Canadian Journal of Plant Science. Selection is based on scientific quality of reviews and timeliness, unbiased review process and decision on scientific papers submitted to the journal. Jhala has been at Nebraska since 2012. His research focuses on the biology, gene flow and management of herbicide-resistant weeds. He is specifically interested in pollen-mediated gene flow from herbicide-resistant crops and weeds and management of herbicide-resistant weeds in corn-soybean cropping systems.
Chris Timm, associate director of employer experience and outreach in the College of Business’ Business Career Center, received the David S. Bechtel Award for Outstanding Career Services Professional during the HireBig10+ Consortium annual conference, June 12 in Allerton, Wisconsin. The award is the Big Ten’s highest honor available for career services professionals. Learn more about the honor.
Janos Zempleni, Willa Cather Professor of Molecular Nutrition, Nutrition and Health Sciences, and director of the Nebraska Center for the Prevention of Obesity Diseases through Dietary Molecules, delivered an invited symposia talk “Bioavailability, Distribution and Phenotypes of Bovine Milk Exosomes in Non-Bovine Species” at the annual meeting of the American Dairy Science Association on June 25 in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Students
Matthew Carter, Glenn Korff School of Music student won second place in the lower college (freshmen and sophomore) men’s musical theatre category in the National Association of Teachers of Singing’s National Student Auditions in Las Vegas.
Calla Kessler, a May 2018 graduate from the College of Journalism and Mass Communication, was recently named Student Still Photographer of the Year by the White House News Photographers Association. The award is part of the association’s Eyes of History Contest, which showcases the best in visual journalism across still, video and multimedia. Kessler was part of the college’s “Wounds of Whiteclay” depth reporting team, which won the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Journalism grand prize. The team covered issues surrounding the beer stores in Whiteclay, Nebraska, which helped fuel alcoholism on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. The group was the first student team to win the grand prize.
Three student projects from the College of Architecture earned awards at the 2018 Society of American Registered Architects, New York Council Design Awards program. Architecture students Benjamin Kunz and Mallory Lane won an Award of Excellence for their project “Interstitial Hope” with Mark Bacon serving as their faculty adviser. “Interstitial Hope” has received several accolades including an Award of Excellence from SARA National in 2017 and an Honor Award from American Institute of Architects Nebraska in 2017. SARA awarded Rachel McCown, Megan Peterson, Danielle Durham and Charles Dowd an award of honor for their project “Aquatic Communities” with Brian Kelly as faculty adviser. Zoë Cope earned the award of merit for her project “Architectural Ghosts” with Peter Olshavsky as her faculty adviser. Additionally, this project was a finalist for the Royal Institute of British Architects President’s M.Arch Silver Medal and presented at the 2018 Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture National Conference in Denver and the 2018 ACSA International Conference in Madrid, Spain.
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.
