Recent achievements for the campus community were earned by Allison Barnes, Marques Garrett, Michael Hanus, Courtney Herber, Anna Lampe, Mary Lenz, Wataru Nilmori, Naisargi Nitinkumar, Aryamav Patnaik, James Schnable, Kimberly Stanke, Adam Wagler, Bryan Wang, Changmin Yan, Rami Ziara, Child, Youth and Family Studies, and the National Student Advertising Competition Team.

Faculty/staff

• Bernard “Barney” McCoy, professor of broadcasting, and Luis-Peon Casanova, assistant professor of practice in broadcasting, are recipients of the 2018 national Sigma Delta Chi Award for excellence in journalism for the documentary, “Black Jack Pershing: Love and War.” The awards recognize the best in professional journalism in categories covering print, radio, television, newsletters, art/graphics, online and research. The award will be presented at the Sigma Delta Chi awards banquet June 8 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

• James Schnable, assistant professor of agronomy and horticulture, received the Marcus Rhoades Early Career Award in maize genetics at the 60th annual Maize Genetics Conference, March 24 in France. Schnable was honored for his work delineating the functionality district subgenomes of maize and separate patterns of selection across during the domestication of maize, sorghum and foxtail millet.

• Michael Sibbernsen, physics and astronomy lecturer, received the 2018 Friend of Science Award from the Nebraska Academy Of Sciences. This honor is the organization’s highest award in recognition for outstanding achievement in the field of science education and scientific research. Sibbernsen received the award during the academy’s 128th annual meeting April 20.

• Tyler White, assistant professor of practice in political science, was named 2018 Instructor of the Year by the International Association for Intelligence Education. The award recognizes contributions to the curriculum and instruction of intelligence education. White will collect the award in person July 22-25 at the IAFIE annual conference in Sydney, Australia.

Students

• Biochemistry graduate student Allison Barnes has earned Predoctoral Fellowship from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture within the United States Department of Agriculture. The fellowship includes a stipend of $95,000 to continue research on her project, “Membrane stability in times of stress: activation of Sensitive to Freezing.”

• Courtney Herber, graduate student in history, Anna Lampe, biological sciences graduate student, Mary Lenz, animal sciences graduate student, Wataru Nilmori, music graduate student, Naisargi Nitinkumar Dave, civil engineering graduate student, Aryamav Pattnaik, veterinary medicine and biomedical science graduate student,** and Rami Ziara, civil engineering graduate student, were awarded summer 2018 Graduate Travel Awards from the Graduate Student Assembly. Winners receive either $400 for domestic conference travel, or $600 for international conferences.

Departments/Units

• Faculty from the College of Journalism and Mass Communications have been awarded a $20,000 System Science Planning grant from the University of Nebraska for a project titled “A health system level approach to integrate weight management, obesity care coordination, patient engagement and clinical trial recruitment.” An interdisciplinary team of researchers will be led by Changmin Yan to explore ways of using communication to improve efficiency and effectiveness of patient care and to promote patient engagement and clinical trial recruitment. Joining the project will be Adam Wagler, Michael Hanus and Bryan Wang.

• The Family Financial Planning online master’s degree offered through the Department of Child, Youth and Family Studies and Great Plains IDEA, has been ranked number one nationally by Top Accounting Degrees. The ranking was based in part on student to faculty ratio, average graduate tuition rate, flexible course offerings, affiliation with professional certification and online student resources such as advising and tech support.

• The National Student Advertising Competition team won second place in the American Advertising Federation district nine regional competition in Kansas City, Missouri, April 13. This year’s client, Ocean Spray, challenged teams to create a marketing campaign that drives relevancy of the brand with millennials across both food and beverages. The Husker NSAC team worked on the project for six months to develop “Your life. Best Served with Ocean Spray.” The campaign includes experiential marketing tactics, video ads, partnerships, media placement, a philanthropic event and more.

• The University of Nebraska–Lincoln has been named one of the world’s best four-year colleges for precision agriculture by PrecisionAg. PrecisionAg released their top 25 institutions based on feedback from peer institutions, industry experts, and internet searches.

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