Recent achievements for the campus community were earned by Jack Arterburn, Susan Hermiller, Kristen Hoerl, Liz Ingraham, Leen-Kiat Soh, Lee Dee Miller, Casey Kelly, Suzette Person, Gil Renberg, Erin Sayer, Madhav Bhatta, Angela DeLuccia, Nicholas Garst, Robert Hall, Dinesh Panday, Raquel Rocha, Jaspreet Sandhu, Loukia Sarroub, Alexandre Tonon Rosa and Michaela Wadzinski.
Faculty/Staff
Jack Arterburn, a beef systems educator with the Panhandle Research and Extension Center, has been named one of the top 10 industry leaders under the age of 40 by The Cattle Business Weekly. The leading agricultural publication compiles its annual list on the bases of accomplishments in the industry, contributions to improving its future, and impacts on local communities.
Susan Hermiller, Willa Cather Professor of Mathematics, was named a fellow of the American Mathematical Society. Fellows are members who have made outstanding contributions to the creation, exposition, advancement, communication, and utilization of mathematics.
Kristen Hoerl, associate professor of communication studies, won the 2018 Book Award from the American Studies Division of the National Communication Association, for “The Bad Sixties: Hollywood Memories of the Counterculture, Antiwar, and Black Power Movements.”
Liz Ingraham, Leen-Kiat Soh and Lee Dee Miller earned an honorable mention in the 2018 National Center for Women and Information Technology Engagement Excellence Awards. The team received the award for their work on a National Science Foundation-supported project focused on improving learning and performance in computing instruction.
Casey Kelly, associate professor of communication studies, has earned the Karl R. Wallace Memorial Award for Outstanding Scholarship from the National Communication Association. The award is presented to scholars who have completed a doctorate within the past 10 years or who are well advanced in doctoral studies in rhetoric and public address. The award will be presented at the National Communication Association’s annual meeting, November 7-11, in Salt Lake City.
Suzette Person, associate professor of practice in computer science and engineering, earned a Test of Time award from the Association for Computing Machinery’s Joint European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering for a paper she co-wrote. The Test of Time Award is given annually recognizing highly influential papers published 10 years ago. The article, “Differential Symbolic Execution,” was published in Proceedings of the 16th ACM SIGSOFT International Symposium on Foundations of Software Engineering.
Gil Renberg, lecturer in Classics and Religious Studies, earned one of three Charles J. Goodwin Awards of Merit, named in honor of a long-time member and generous benefactor of the Society for Classical Studies. The awards are given for outstanding contributions to classical scholarship published by a member of the society during the three years before the current calendar year.
Loukia Sarroub, professor in teaching, learning and teacher education, presented the keynote address at the International Conference of Teaching and Education, Oct. 23-29 at the University of Tanjungpura in Pontianak, Indonesia. The conference theme was “Quality Improvement and Innovation in Education.” Sarroub’s presentation, “Understanding the ‘Youth’ in Youth Literacies Across Home and School Settings,” explored her research on how low socio-economic status students engage with different and multiple literacies across home and school settings.
Erin Sayer, assistant professor of practice of biochemistry, has been elected to serve a three year term as co-director of the Northwest Region of the Student Chapter Steering Committee for the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. As co-director, she will work with her colleague from St. Mary’s University of Minnesota, and 12 other regional directors to support the efforts of the society’s student chapters.
Students
Madhav Bhatta, a graduate student in agronomy and horticulture, was awarded the Widaman Distinguished Graduate Assistant Award during an Oct. 18 honors luncheon hosted by the Agricultural Research Division and College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources. The award is for graduate students with high scholastic merit and research potential conducting basic research in agriculture. Bhatta’s research focus is in plant breeding and genetics. His adviser is P. Stephen Baenziger, professor of agronomy and horticulture.
Angela DeLuccia, doctoral student in sociology, has been selected to participate in one of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s leadership development programs, designed to equip leaders across the country — in every sector and field — to collaborate, break down silos and use their influence to make communities healthier and more equitable. DeLuccia was selected for Health Policy Research Scholars. Designed for second-year doctoral students from underrepresented populations and disadvantaged backgrounds, Health Policy Research Scholars helps researchers from all fields—from economics to epidemiology—apply their work to policies that advance equity and health while building a diverse field of leaders who reflect our changing national demographics. The four- to five-year program provides participants with an annual stipend of up to $30,000.
Nicholas Garst, a graduate student in agronomy and horticulture, was awarded the Al Moseman International Fellowship during an Oct. 18 honors luncheon hosted by the Agricultural Research Division and College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources. The fellowship is reserved for a graduate student with interests in international agriculture and world food development with an emphasis on plant breeding and genetics. Garst’s research focus is on the challenges of seed production specifically looking at traits having to do with pollination as that is the limiting factor in making hybrid wheat commercially viable. His adviser is P. Stephen Baenziger, professor of agronomy and horticulture.
Robert Hall, graduate student in communication studies, won a both a Top Four Paper in Interpersonal and Family Communication Interest Group for the Central States Communication Association and the Nancy Burrell Award for Top Student Paper for his paper, “Between friends, an ‘implicit trust’: Exploring the (non)disclosure of private mental health-related information in friendships.” The paper will be presented at the association’s annual meeting in April 2019 in Omaha.
Dinesh Panday, a graduate student in agronomy and horticulture, earned a 2018 Maize-Asia Youth Innovators Award during the 13th Asian Maize Conference, Oct. 8-10 in Ludhiana, India. He was also invited to present his work in maize research during the conference’s closing plenary session. The 2018 Maize-Asia awards recognize the contributions of innovative young researchers who can inspire fellow young people to get involved with maize-based study and farming. Panday is working and studying at the Panhandle Research and Extension Center in Scottsbluff. He is studying soil fertility and nutrient management. His advisers are Bijesh Maharjan, assistant professor, and Richard Ferguson, professor, both in agronomy and horticulture.
Raquel Rocha, a graduate student in plant pathology, was awarded the Widaman Distinguished Graduate Assistant Award during an Oct. 18 honors luncheon hosted by the Agricultural Research Division and College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources. The award is for graduate students with high scholastic merit and research potential conducting basic research in agriculture. Bhatta’s research studies plant-fungal interactions using rice blast as a model system. Her adviser is Richard Wilson, associate professor of plant pathology.
Jaspreet Sandhu, a graduate student in agronomy and horticulture, was awarded the Hardin Distinguished Graduate Fellowship and the Milton E. Mohr Fellowship during an Oct. 18 honors luncheon hosted by the Agricultural Research Division and College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources. The Hardin fellowship supports research in plant pathology with particular emphasis on genetic mechanisms influencing plant responses to stress conditions. The Mohr fellowship recognizes graduate students in biotechnology and engineering based on academic performance and potential for accomplishments. Understanding the physiological and molecular responses to transient heat stress during early seed development in rice is the focus of Sandhu’s research. Her adviser is Harkamal Walia, associate professor of agronomy and horticulture.
Alexandre Tonon Rosa, a graduate student in agronomy and horticulture, was awarded the Shear-Miles Fellowship during an Oct. 18 honors luncheon hosted by the Agricultural Research Division and College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources. The award is for students with high scholastic merit and research potential in basic agriculture and are conducting either basic or applied research in agriculture. His research is focused on cover crop management in western Nebraska. His advisers are Cody Creech, assistant professor, and Roger Elmore, professor, both in agronomy and horticulture.
Michaela Wadzinski, a senior film and new media major, has earned film festival awards for her animated film, “Negative Spaces.” The six-minute, live action and animation hybrid won the Best in Animation Award at the Sioux City International Film Festival in September. It also earned the Best Nomination honor at the South Dakota Film Festival, also in September. Overall, “Negative Spaces” has been accepted into eight film festivals, including the Celtic Animation Film Festival, Open World Animation Film Festival and the Kansas International Film Festival.
This column is a regular 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.
