Accolades, February 2018

Accolades News for Researchers

Posted March 4, 2018 by Ashley Washburn

Awards, Honors and Recognitions

Lindsey Bahe and Nathan Bicak, interior design, received honors in the Council for Interior Design Accreditation’s Award for Excellence competition, which recognizes excellence in interior design education. Bahe earned first place for her entry, “Shifting Studios: From Project Typology Based Problem Solving to Inquiry, Circumstance and Conditions,” which explores applied inquiry and research, critical thinking and design’s role in current social issues. Bicak’s submission, “Learning Spaces Collaborative Studio,” received an honorable mention.

Dipti Dev, child, youth and family studies, and nutrition and health sciences, earned the National Family Life and Human Development State Extension Specialist Early Achievement Award from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The annual national award honors an early career extension specialist who has a leadership role and whose work has local and national impacts. Dev’s research and outreach focuses on policy and environmental approaches to childhood obesity prevention.

Gwendolyn Audrey Foster, English, and Wheeler Winston Dixon, film studies and English, will have their latest work exhibited March 2-April 14 at the BWA Katowice Modern Art Museum in Poland. The exhibition, which will feature about 200 videos, will be screened continuously each day in a gallery dedicated to the pair’s work.

Dale Grotelueschen, veterinary medicine and biomedical sciences, and director of the Great Plains Veterinary Educational Center, was named veterinarian of the year by the Nebraska Veterinary Medical Association during its annual convention Jan. 25. The award is presented to an association member who has advanced the field of veterinary medicine in Nebraska.

Amit Jhala, agronomy and horticulture, and Nebraska Extension, received the Outstanding Reviewer Award from the Weed Science Society of America at the group’s annual conference Jan. 29-31 in Arlington, Virginia. The award honors a scientist who has reviewed papers submitted to WSSA scientific journals.

Barnard “Barney” McCoy and Luis Peon-Casanova, journalism and mass communications, received an Award of Excellence from judges in the Broadcast Education Association’s Festival of Media Arts documentary competition for their work on “Black Jack Pershing: Love and War.” The BEA festival is competitive, with 1,540 entries in 15 of its competitions this year.

Terri Norton, construction engineering, received the Educational Leadership College-Level Promotion of Education Award at the Black Engineer of the Year STEM Conference, Feb. 8-10 in Washington, D.C. The award honors faculty and staff who have demonstrated a strong commitment to preserving superior engineering, scientific and technical education programs.

Mitchell Stephenson, agronomy and horticulture, and Nebraska Extension, received an Outstanding Young Range Professional Award at the Society for Range Management’s 71st Annual Meeting, Technical Training and Trade Show, held Jan. 28-Feb. 2 in Sparks, Nevada. The award recognizes society members’ superior performance and leadership potential in range-related activity.

Hamid Vakilzadian, electrical and computer engineering, received the George F. McClure Citation of Honor on Feb. 3 at the IEEE-USA Awards and Recognitions Ceremony. He was honored for his work in organizing the 2017 Electro-Information Technology Conference, which was held on the Nebraska campus, and for his leadership in Region 4 technical and professional activities.

Sheri Fritz, earth and atmospheric sciences, will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Paleolimnology Association at its June symposium in Stockholm, Sweden. The honor recognizes individuals who have advanced the field of paleolimnology – the study of old biological remains and sediment to reconstruct the history of lakes, rivers and other inland waters – and furthered public understanding of long-term environmental change.

Amanda Morales, teaching, learning and teacher education, received the Teacher Diversity Research Award from the Diversified Teacher Workforce Topical Action Group of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education. She received the award Feb. 28 at the Diversified Teaching Workforce Institute in recognition of outstanding research and advocacy to advance teacher diversity.

Pat Tetreault, director of the LGBTQA+ Resource Center, received the 2018 Research Recognition Award from the American College Personnel Association’s Coalition for Sexual and Gender Identities. Tetrault was honored for her research to advance the LGBTQA+ community, which she has been conducting since 2007.

Professional Involvement

Megan Elliott, Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts, served as a mentor at Berlinale Talents, an annual summit and networking event in Berlin tied to the Berlin International Film Festival. During the Feb. 17-20 event, she learned from and built connections with 250 audio-visual creatives, and expanded the center’s international reach.

Jacqueline Huscroft-D’Angelo, Jessica Namkung and Alex Trout, special education and communication disorders, led sessions at the 2018 Council for Exceptional Children Convention and Expo, held Feb. 7-10 in Tampa, Florida. The council is a professional organization aimed at advancing the success of children with exceptionalities.

Brian Kelly, architecture, was appointed to the State of Nebraska Board of Engineers and Architects by Gov. Pete Ricketts. The board’s mission is to oversee state licensure and regulate the practice of architects and professional engineers.

Dipra Jha, hospitality, restaurant and tourism management, traveled to Solan, India, to deliver a Feb. 12 presentation at Shoolini University as part of the prestigious Guru Series lectures. His talk focused on the future of work and the new career opportunities offered through automation and augmented intelligence.

Publishing Awards

Susan Sheridan, educational psychology and Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families and Schools, and Amanda Witte, project manager with CYFS, and their colleagues co-authored an article selected as the 2017 Article of the Year by the Journal of School Psychology. The paper described results of a large rural trial of Teachers and Parents as Partners, a family-school intervention focused on building collaboration between caregivers and educators.

Aaron Johnson, teaching, learning and teacher education, and colleagues received a National Technology Leadership Initiative’s Technology Paper Award by the College and University Faculty Assembly, a research affiliate of the National Council for the Social Studies. They were honored for the presentation and paper called “Making the Invisible Visible: Evaluating the Use of Mixed Reality to Teach a Forgotten Local History – School Segregation – with Fifth Graders.”

Other News

Doug Zalensky was named director of the Eastern Nebraska Research and Extension Center, a unit of the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources near Mead, Nebraska. He currently serves as director of the Laramie Research and Extension Center at the University of Wyoming. Zalensky, who has a bachelor’s degree in animal science and production and a master’s degree in physiology of reproduction endocrinology from Nebraska, and a Ph.D. in physiology of reproduction and endocrinology from Texas A&M University, will begin his tenure April 1.

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