Members of the UNL community who were featured in award announcements between April 10-16 include Jake Bunger, Joe Louis, Barney McCoy, Daniel Dunham, Celeste Labedz, Shashank Khatri and Matthew Peppers

Faculty/Staff

• Rodger Johnson, a professor emeritus of animal science, received the Henry L. Bolley Academic Achievement Award from North Dakota State University. The award honors individuals who have attained noted achievements in the area of education as teachers, researchers or administrators.

• Joe Louis, assistant professor of entomology, was awarded the Eric E. Conn Young Investigator Award from the American Society of Plant Biologists. The award recognizes not only outstanding research but also demonstrated excellence in outreach, public service, mentoring or teaching by plant scientists at the beginning of their careers.

• Barney McCoy, an associate professor of broadcasting at the UNL College of Journalism and Mass Communication, was honored with an Award of Excellence by the 2015 Canada International Film Festival for his documentary “They Could Really Play the Game: Reloaded.” His film was selected as one of the top 10 films in this year’s documentary feature category. The film is about the 1952-54 Rio Grande college basketball team that saved the college from bankruptcy thanks to the record-setting scoring of Bevo Francis and his barn-storming teammates.

Students

• Jake Bunger won the “PepsiCo Meeting of the Minds” competition, a nationwide contest that challenged college students to come up with a concept that would tie the company to emerging musicians. Bunger, a junior majoring in advertising/public relations and marketing, won a summer marketing internship in New York City and a meeting with Frank Cooper, chief marketing officer of global consumer engagement at PepsiCo. Bunger’s video is available at http://go.unl.edu/qit4.

• A team of four students, Daniel Dunham, Celeste Labedz, Shashank Khatri and Matthew Peppers, from the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, recently placed third in the mid-continent region of the Imperial Barrel Award Program. The annual competition has participants evaluate a basin before making recommendations for future exploration on the basis of technical and economic conditions. The students analyzed geological and infrastructural data in the eight weeks leading up to the competition, reporting their results to a panel of industry experts that judged presentations according to technical quality, clarity and originality. The team was coached by Christopher Fielding, professor and Coffman Chair of sedimentary geology.

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.