Accolades News for Researchers
Posted April 3, 2025 by Tiffany Lee
Honors and Recognitions
Moe Alahmad, Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction, received the Outstanding AE Educator Award from the Architectural Engineering Institute. The award honors outstanding teaching in architectural engineering. Alahmad focuses his research on electrified transportations, building load profiles and load modeling analysis, consumption and conservation in the built environment, and real-time monitoring and control for smart buildings. He has received numerous teaching awards at UNL, including the Outstanding Faculty Award from the Architectural Engineering Student Leadership and Advisory Committee.
Molly Brummond and Korey Taylor, law, were inducted into the Nebraska State Bar Foundation 2024 Class of Fellows. Fellows are selected for their integrity and character, distinction in the profession or community, contributions to the profession or the community, and their contribution to the foundation. Brummond, assistant dean of student development and chief of staff, focuses on leadership in the context of lawyering. She was a key player in designing the college’s professional skills development program, which has received national attention. Taylor is a scholar in special topics related to crime and due process and diversity in the legal field. He teaches several courses related to criminal law. Brummond and Taylor were honored at the foundation’s Fellows Dinner in March.
Byron Chaves, food science and technology, received the Emerging Leader Award in the category of food safety from the Institute for the Advancement of Food and Nutrition Sciences. The award promotes excellence in the food safety and nutritional sciences as demonstrated by research, leadership, initiative, collaboration and communication. Chaves is a food scientist with expertise in food safety microbiology, product and process validations, and food safety management systems. He will travel to Washington, D.C., in June to give a presentation at the institute’s Annual Summer Science Symposium.
Frauke Hachtmann, advertising, was selected to participate in this year’s Association of National Advertisers’ Educational Foundation Visiting Professor Program. She will spend a week in New York City working with advertising professionals and going behind the scenes of agencies.
Taeyeon Kim, educational administration, received the 2025 Emerging Scholar Award from Division A of the American Educational Research Association. The award recognizes pre-tenure scholars in the first five years of their career who have made outstanding contributions to the field of leadership, administration or organizational theory. Kim’s scholarship explores the intersections of leadership and policy, with a particular focus on how leaders can challenge unjust systems and capacities for more equitable and humanizing education. Separately, Kim also received the 2025 Teaching Comparative and International Education Innovative Curriculum Development Award from the Comparative and International Education Society. It honored the innovative design of her course, EDAD 930: Comparative International Education.
Eric Markvicka, mechanical and materials engineering, was selected as a senior member of the National Academy of Inventors. Senior members are honored for success in patents, licensing and commercialization and for producing technologies that have tangibly improved the welfare of society. Markvicka, who is listed on nearly 20 U.S. patents, was recognized for his work to develop materials, processes and devices that have potential to improve human health and daily life. His work includes development of stretchable and wearable electronics to monitor human physiology, including a device for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; liquid metal mixtures that could propel soft robotics; and rubber composites with enhanced functionality.
Markvicka also received the Rising Star of Mechanical Engineering Award from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. The award honors early career engineers who are advancing the engineering profession and inspiring the next generation of engineers.
Colleen Medill, law, received the Outstanding Legal Educator Award from the Nebraska State Bar Foundation. Medill has taught at the University of Nebraska College of Law for 20 years and is the college’s director of Undergraduate Academic Programs. She is nationally recognized for her innovative teaching techniques in the areas of employee benefits law, property law and professional legal skills development. Medill also provides continuing legal education to attorneys and other legal professionals and has authored textbooks and teaching manuals used at numerous ABA-accredited law schools. She was presented with the award at the foundation’s 37th Annual Fellows Dinner.
Lance C. Pérez, electrical and computer engineering, was named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world’s largest multidisciplinary scientific society. Fellows are selected by their peers for scientifically or socially distinguished achievements that advance science or its application. Pérez, Fred Hunzeker Dean of Engineering and Omar H. Heins Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, was selected for contributions to the field of engineering, particularly wireless communication research, administrative leadership and engineering education. Under his leadership, the College of Engineering has flourished, setting records in enrollment and research, and launching the largest academic facilities project in the university’s 154-year history. Pérez and the other new fellows will be featured in the March edition of the journal Science and honored in Washington, D.C., in June.
Janos Zempleni, nutrition and health sciences, was named a distinguished fellow of the American Society for Nutrition, which is the organization’s highest accolade. Distinguished fellowship honors individuals for significant contributions and outstanding lifetime achievements in the field of nutrition. Zempleni has pioneered studies of extracellular vesicles and their RNA cargos in milk and their biological activities. He is one of 21 scientists who will be inducted as distinguished fellows in June in Orlando, Florida.
Twelve Husker faculty have joined the National Strategic Research Institute at the University of Nebraska’s Fellows Program, a collaborative network aimed at expanding the institute’s transdisciplinary research capabilities. The new fellows, who join more than 150 peers already in the program, will receive public information related to NSRI’s mission that can help stimulate formation of research teams for projects across the institute’s research portfolio. Fellows are also invited to attend an annual invitation-only conference and to join working groups that provide a venue for conversations about real-world defense challenges. The new members are:
- Nirupam Aich, civil and environmental engineering;
- Cory Armstrong, journalism and mass communications;
- Shannon Bartelt-Hunt, civil and environmental engineering;
- Christian Binek, physics;
- Barry Cheung, physical chemistry;
- David Hage, analytical chemistry;
- Jacob John, materials and nanoscience;
- Stephen Morin, chemistry;
- Brett Neely, management;
- Santosh Pitla, biological systems engineering;
- Sangjin Ryu, mechanical and materials engineering; and
- Limei Zhang, biochemistry.
Other News
Tom Burkey has been named interim dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources. His appointment is effective June 1. Burkey succeeds Tiffany Heng-Moss, who in January was named interim NU vice president and Harlan Vice Chancellor for UNL’s Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources. Burkey joined the animal science department in 2006 and is currently a professor and CASNR’s associate dean for graduate education. In these roles, Burkey has advanced strategic initiatives that enhance graduate education, workforce preparedness and student success. He is internationally recognized for his research in swine gut health, contributing to patented probiotics and co-founding Synbiotic Health.
Jeff Reese has been named the next dean of the College of Education and Human Sciences. Reese, who comes to Nebraska from Auburn University, will assume the role on July 1, pending University of Nebraska Board of Regents approval. At Auburn, he is head of the Department of Special Education, Rehabilitation and Counseling and professor of counseling psychology. He has nearly 15 years of administrative experience, including serving as department chair for four years at the University of Kentucky. Reese has also received federal and foundation funding and has more than 70 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters. He holds a Bachelor of Science in psychology and a Master of Science in clinical psychology from Abilene Christian University and a doctorate in counseling psychology from Texas A&M University.
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