Accolades News for Researchers
Posted May 2, 2025 by Tiffany Lee
Honors and Recognitions
Ken Bloom, Daniel Claes and Ilya Kravchenko, physics and astronomy, are part of a collaboration that received the 2025 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics. Founded in 2012, the Breakthrough Prize recognizes individuals or teams that have made profound contributions to our understanding of the world around us. The Husker trio is part of the Compact Muon Solenoid collaboration, which is one of the largest scientific group efforts in history. The CMS team, along with three other collaborations at the Large Hadron Collider, located near Geneva, Switzerland, were honored for their detailed measurements of the Higgs boson, a tiny particle that helps explain why items in the universe have mass.
Mike Boehm, plant pathology, was named a fellow of the American Phytopathological Society. Fellows are selected for distinguished contributions to plant pathology. Boehm was honored for his commitment to teaching and mentoring, advocacy for plant pathology, exceptional service to APS and transformative leadership in higher education. Since 2017, Boehm has served as the University of Nebraska’s Harlan Vice Chancellor for the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources and vice president for agriculture and natural resources. In this dual role, he has driven unprecedented growth in research and extension programs, secured record levels of external funding and supported initiatives linking scientific discovery to practical applications in agriculture. Boehm plans to return to the faculty at the end of this semester.
Nathan Conner, agricultural leadership, education and communication, received the Outstanding Achievement Award from the Association for International Agricultural and Extension Education. The award recognizes outstanding leadership in international agricultural and extension education. Conner’s research focuses on adult education, science literacy and the globalization of agricultural education programs.
Jennifer Davidson, economics, received the 2025 Bessie B. Moore Service Award from the National Association of Economic Educators. The award, given at the association’s spring conference, honors individuals whose outstanding and dedicated service have significantly impacted the delivery and enhancement of economic education nationwide.
Betsy Emmons, advertising and public relations, was selected to participate in this year’s Association of National Advertisers’ Educational Foundation Visiting Professor Program in New York City. The program’s goal is to enhance professors’ understanding of current developments and practice in advertising and marketing to inform their teaching and research. Emmons was also selected for the Institute for Public Relations’ prestigious ELEVATE program, which offers programming, networking and other opportunities to communication leaders who are focused on research, innovation and entrepreneurship. Emmons’ teaching and research focuses on sports media and public relations.
George Graef, agronomy and horticulture, received the 2025 Larry Tonniges Research Achievement Award from the Nebraska Soybean Board. The award, which was made possible by the family of the late Larry Tonniges, a longtime Nebraska farmer who was dedicated to production research as part of the NSB, honors researchers who have made significant contributions to soybean research. As a professor and Presidential Chair of Soybean Breeding, Graef has led a research program focused on improving soybean yields, developing disease-resistant varieties and improving seed composition traits.
Nevin Lawrence, agronomy and horticulture and Nebraska Extension, was recognized by the Western Sugar Cooperative for his work to provide data supporting an emergency use label for the herbicide Goltix to control the aggressive weed Palmer amaranth in sugar beets. Lawrence played a key role in determining that Goltix was effective as a pre-emergence product and helped Western Sugar work with the state of Nebraska and the Environmental Protection Agency to get Goltix approved for use by sugar beet growers. Lawrence was recognized March 24 at the Nebraska Beet Growers Association meeting.
Elsbeth Magilton, law, was co-recipient of the 2025 Emerging Leader Award from the Association of American Law Schools Externship Section. The award is given to individuals new to the externship community who have demonstrated leadership through initiatives to further their externship program or community, publication of externship-related articles or other similar activities. Magilton was named the College of Law’s inaugural director of externships in 2022. In 2023, she began service to the AALS as co-chair for the AALS Externship Section Sub-Committee on Scholarship.
Barney McCoy and John Shrader, broadcasting, were honored at the 2025 Eric Sevareid Awards, presented by the Midwest Broadcast Journalists Association on April 12 in Minneapolis. McCoy received a first-place award in the Medium Market Television documentary/special category for “Running Towards the First – A War Correspondent’s Story.” Shrader won two awards in Medium Market Radio: He was first in the sports reporting category for “JILLIAN MARTIN, University of Nebraska Bowler,” and received an award of merit in podcast for “The Booming Market: Sports Reporters covering Sports Media.” Husker students from the College of Journalism and Mass Communications also received awards. In total, the UNL contingent won 12 first-place awards and six awards of merit.
Christian Stephenson, agronomy and horticulture, earned the Lancaster County 4-H’s Heart of 4-H Award in recognition of outstanding volunteer service. Stephenson has taught plant science to 4-H youth for two years. He led short-term 4-H STEM clubs on East Campus and taught “Green Thumb Science” workshops at 4-H Clover College, a Nebraska Extension program featuring hands-on, STEAM-focused workshops.
Ng’ang’a Wahu-Mũchiri, English, was named a fellow of the American Council of Learned Societies. The ACLS Fellowship program supports outstanding scholarship in the humanities and interpretive social sciences. Wahu-Mũchiri will pursue the project “Water and Waterscapes in Writing from the African Continent.”
The University of Nebraska State Museum received a Lincoln’s Choice Award in the Best Museum category. Sponsored by the Lincoln Journal Star, the awards program allows Lincoln residents to vote for businesses across various categories. This is the eighth consecutive win for Morrill Hall in this category.
Research development professionals in the Office of Research and Innovation are part of a multi-institutional team that received the Innovation Award from the National Organization of Research Development Professionals. The collaborative effort is known as Fostering Opportunities Through Collaborative University Synergies, or FOCUS, and is aimed at enabling universities to stretch limited research development resources by working together. UNL members of the FOCUS team include Heather Borck, Matthew Dwyer, Nathan Meier, Tisha Gilreath Mullen and Jackson Hardin.
Publications
Ravi Saraf, chemical and biomolecular engineering, and Yanan (Laura) Wang, electrical and computer engineering, led research that was highlighted as a cover article in Nanoscale, a leading journal by the Royal Society of Chemistry. The team created a nanoparticle necklace network – self-assembled, one-dimensional chains of gold nanoparticles that significantly expand light absorption and boost photocatalytic efficiency. This breakthrough work, supported by the Nebraska Center for Energy Sciences Research, provides a promising strategy for next-generation solar-to-fuel conversion. The team also includes Muhammad Ashar Naveed, a doctoral student in electrical and computer engineering, and Jay Min Lim, a master’s student in mechanical and materials engineering.
Professional Service
Chris Graves, journalism, was appointed to a three-year term on the Nebraska Writing Project advisory board. The project is a network of educators, kindergarten through college, committed to the teaching of writing across disciplines and communities.
Colleen Medill, law, was engaged by the National Commission of Bar Examiners to review and provide comments on a detailed compilation of the legal rules governing real property law topics that will be tested on the NextGen Bar Exam. That exam, aimed at better aligning with the legal profession’s practical demands, is expected to replace the current Uniform Bar Exam in many jurisdictions. The compilation of legal rules Medill reviewed will eventually be made available to law professors who are revising their courses to prepare students for the NextGen Bar Exam.
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