Accolades News for Researchers
Posted January 9, 2026 by Tiffany Lee
Accolades are compiled from faculty and staff submissions, the Office of Research and Innovation’s external recognition and awards coordinator, the Achievements column published by University Communication and Marketing, and college, center and departmental websites.
Honors and Recognitions
Edgar Cahoon, biochemistry and Center for Plant Science Innovation, received the 2026 Supelco American Oil Chemists’ Society Research Award. The award recognizes outstanding, original research in fats, oils, lipid chemistry or biochemistry and has previously been awarded to three Nobel Prize winners. Cahoon is an internationally recognized leader in plant lipid biochemistry who is known for his work on lipid metabolic pathways and fatty acid desaturase structure-function.
Kate Engel, executive director of Nebraska Innovation Campus, was elected to the Association of University Research Parks’ 2026 Board of Directors and Officers. She will serve on the board as an at-large member of the executive committee. Board members were elected by their peers from across the organization’s global network.
Jody Green, Nebraska Extension and entomology, and Louise Lynch-O’Brien, entomology, received national awards from the Entomological Society of America.
- Green received the Distinguished Achievement Award in Extension, which recognizes outstanding contributions to extension entomology. She was honored for her more than 20 years of practical, community-focused work, especially her efforts to increase awareness and create safer, more understanding environments for those dealing with bed bugs. She’s also been an innovator in science communication, including development of her tagline, “Stop and think before you step on a bug,” which has fostered greater appreciation and understanding of the insect world.
- Lynch-O’Brien received the Distinguished Achievement Award in Teaching, which is presented annually to the society member deemed the most outstanding teacher of the year. Her teaching approach focuses on experiential learning, inclusion and cultivating curiosity – particularly through community-based, interdisciplinary engagement with insects and arthropods. She teaches a variety of undergraduate courses and experiential learning seminars and mentors more than 35 undergraduate advisees at a time. She’s also served on more than 10 graduate student committees across disciplines.
Jessica Groskopf and Linda Reddish, Nebraska Extension, conducted a study, “Survey of Nebraska Farm and Ranch Divorce Cases,” which was recognized as the second-place national winner and the first-place central region winner of the 2025 Program Excellence Through Research Award from the National Extension Association of Family and Consumer Sciences. The award recognizes the use of research results to improve existing programs or develop new programs. The Husker duo’s research focused on how well professionals are equipped to support farm and ranch families during divorces, with the longer-term goal of developing better training and outreach for professionals and families involved in divorce.
Edmund ‘Ted’ Hamann, teaching, learning and teacher education, was selected as the recipient of the 2025 George and Louise Spindler Award by the Council on Anthropology and Education. The award honors scholars/practitioners whose achievements in educational anthropology as researchers or practitioners have been distinguished, exemplary and inspirational. Hamann’s wide-ranging scholarly interests include migration, school reform, comparative education, language education, literacy and teacher preparation, which have generated more than 100 publications. He was recognized at the 2025 American Anthropological Association annual meeting in November.
Katrina Jagodinsky, history, received the Mary L. Dudziak Digital Legal History Prize from the American Society for Legal History. The prize is awarded annually to an outstanding digital legal history project. Jagodinsky was recognized for “Petitioning for Freedom,” a first-of-its-kind tool that enables users to explore how marginalized communities navigated the courts to seek justice in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The portal culminates more than a decade of research by Jagodinsky, who developed the project in partnership with her team in the Digital Legal Research Lab.
Matt Kreifels, agricultural leadership, education and communication, received the National FFA Alumni and Supporters Outstanding Achievement Award. The award is the highest honor presented by the organization and recognizes exceptional leadership and service to agriculture education and FFA. Kreifels was recognized for his leadership in advancing agricultural education in Nebraska, including initiatives like the Teachers Fellows Development Program, Supervised Agricultural Experiences for All, and expansion of ag education programs.
Nam Le, finance, earned his Certified Financial Planner designation from the CFP Board in December. The credential is the industry standard in financial planning and requires rigorous education, training and ethical commitments.
Ciara Ousley, special education and communication disorders, has been named the 2026 recipient of the Early Career Research Award from the Council for Exceptional Children’s Division on Autism and Developmental Disabilities. The award recognizes early career researchers who demonstrate exceptional promise in research related to students with autism, intellectual disabilities and other developmental disabilities. Ousley’s research focuses on supporting the social communication skills of young children with developmental disabilities who have limited to no vocal speech, including those who use augmentative and alternative communication. She will be recognized at the DADD Annual Conference in Long Beach, California, Jan. 14-17.
Mathias Schubert, electrical and computer engineering, was named a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, the highest professional distinction awarded solely to inventors. Schubert and the rest of the 2025 class of fellows will be honored at the NAI 15th Annual Conference in Los Angeles in June.
Publications
Mohammad Hasan, electrical and computer engineering, received the Blue Sky Best Paper Runner-Up Award at the 27th ACM International Conference on Multimodal Interaction. The award, sponsored by the Computing Community Consortium, recognizes visionary artificial intelligence research that pushes the boundaries of conventional methodologies and presents high-risk, innovative ideas with deep interdisciplinary insights. Hasan was recognized for the paper “MUSE: A Multimodal, Generative, and Symbolic Framework for Human Experience Modeling,” which proposes a novel framework integrating multimodal representations, generative simulations and symbolic context for understanding human experiences.
James Schnable and J. Vladimir Torres-Rodriguez, agronomy and horticulture, were authors on a paper that was selected as The Plant Journal’s Outstanding Original Research Article. The paper, selected from approximately 500 articles published in 2024, addresses a longstanding challenge in plant biology: despite decades of work, fewer than 2% of genes in the corn genome have been linked to specific roles in determining the properties of a corn plant. The research team introduced an innovative, RNA-focused gene-analysis method aimed at helping scientists identify the job of each gene.
Professional Service
Andrew Hanna, management, was elected to the executive team of the Academy of Management’s Research Methods Division. He will serve a three-year term as chair of the Research Methods Consortium for the Consortium for the Advancement of Research Methods and Analytics.
Other News
Cheryl Horst is the new executive director of NUtech Ventures, the university’s nonprofit technology commercialization affiliate. In this role, she will provide strategic direction, operational guidance and leadership to ensure NUtech Ventures is at the forefront of academic technology transfer and commercialization. Before beginning the new post on Dec. 15, Horst had held the role in an interim capacity since July 2024, a period during which she developed a strategic plan for NUtech that included multiple new initiatives, including the NUexpress licensing option. Horst earned a Juris Doctor from the Nebraska College of Law with a specialization in intellectual property and a master’s degree in bacteriology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Joe Luck, professor and Nebraska Extension specialist in precision agriculture and assistant director of the Eastern Nebraska Research, Extension and Education Center near Mead, has been appointed interim head of the Department of Biological Systems Engineering. He succeeds Mark Stone, who has returned to the faculty. Luck will focus on strengthening the department’s partnerships across the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources, the College of Engineering and other units at the university, as well as on expanding collaborations with external partners and strengthening student success.
On Jan. 5, Tim Nelson became the new director of the university’s Center for Brain, Biology and Behavior. Nelson, Mildred Francis Thompson Professor of Psychology, focuses his research on pediatric health neuroscience, particularly the interplay between brain, behavior and environment in influencing child and adolescent health and development. Nelson, who joined Nebraska in 2009, has published more than 100 peer-reviewed journal articles and receives federal funding primarily from the National Institutes of Health, including nearly $12 million in funding as principal investigator. Nelson has also served as the associate director of the Rural Drug Addiction Research Center since 2020, as well as associate director of the university’s Clinical Psychology Training Program for 13 years.
Joe Sanders has been appointed the new executive director of the Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute at the University of Nebraska and will officially assume the role on Feb. 1. DWFI, which unites experts from all four campuses, focuses on finding innovative solutions to the complex challenges of water and food security. Sanders has more than 27 years of experience as an international development leader, designing and managing large-scale programs across Africa, Asia and Latin America. Throughout his career, Sanders has led eight major initiatives totaling over $330 million, with a focus on agricultural market systems, food security, climate resilience, irrigation, youth livelihoods and governance.
Adam Wagler, is the new interim dean of the College of Journalism and Mass Communications, a role he started on Dec. 24. Wagler joined the college in 2006 and has served in a leadership capacity since 2021, including most recently as associate dean for academic programs. Wagler’s professional background and research interests revolve around interactive media, emerging technology and user experience. The leadership change was prompted by the departure of Shari Veil, who was selected to serve as provost at North Dakota State University.
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