Johnsgard Profiled in Chronicle of Higher Education

UNL professor of zoology Paul A. Johnsgard is the focus of a full-page feature in the April 6 Chronicle of Higher Education. Johnsgard's passion for birds and his particular affection for sandhill cranes is the topic of "The Natural World" column by editor-at-large Malcolm Scully.

Scully and his wife Jane visited near Kearney with Johnsgard in mid-March during the annual crane migration. Scully, who pens "The Natural World" column, enjoys watching birds and traveling to unique environments.

"For Johnsgard, and for anyone who has ever taken joy or solace from the wild rhythms of the seasons, it is a reverential moment," Scully writes in the feature, after describing how the prairie sky fills with skeins of birds. He quotes Johnsgard as saying "I've seen this hundreds of times, and I still get shivers. It is a spiritual experience. It is renewal."

Johnsgard's 40th book, Prairie Birds: Fragile Splendor in the Great Plains, was recently released. Scully notes that Johnsgard is a "first-rate ornithologist, naturalist and writer with a passion for the creatures he studies and the places they frequent."

Diaz-Perdomo Honored for Contributions to GLBT Community

Luis F. Diaz-Perdomo, psychologist and counselor in the Counseling and Psychological Services division at University Health Center, received the award for Outstanding Contributions to the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual & Transgender Community at a program March 28.

More than 15 years ago, he initiated the Gay Men's Discussion group, which has grown from a handful of individuals to a thriving well-attended group that serves as a resource of support for many gay men at UNL. He was one of the first people at UNL to provide HIV/AIDS education and served on UNL's HIV/AIDS task force and a regional community task force with the Lancaster County health department. His counseling for people with HIV and AIDS began nearly as a one-man effort because he was providing services that were almost non-existent elsewhere in the community.

He also has provided educational presentations to faculty and staff about gay and lesbian issues. He coordinated orientation for student assistants in University Housing and incorporated information about gay and lesbian issues into this training. He has conducted numerous workshops on campus about sexual identity and assists with diversity training for health aides.

A native of Cuba, Diaz-Perdomo came to UNL in 1969 as residence director at Selleck, serving in that position for two years. In 1974, he began working as a psychological counselor in the UNL Counseling Center.

Ellis Earns New Achiever Honor

Dave Ellis of Lincoln will be honored by the University of Nebraska College of Human Resources and Family Sciences Alumni Association for his work in nutritional sciences. The New Achiever Award will be presented to Ellis at the college's spring alumni reception April 6.

Ellis is the director of performance nutrition in the Nebraska athletic department, where he oversees the most advanced sports nutrition support service in college athletics. The nutritional feeding system he implemented at NU has become a popular template for other schools with major sports programs in the United States. He does consulting for several professional teams, agents and food industry leaders. Ellis is working to establish a new body composition lab and build a new training table with leaders in the food and biotechnology industries.

Originally from Omaha, Ellis earned a bachelor's degree in nutrition in 1988. He ran a private coaching firm for three years before taking a job at the University of Wisconsin in 1990. He returned to Nebraska in 1994 to assume his current position.

Graham Remembered as Great Communicator

Funeral services were held March 28 for Ralston J. Graham, retired professor emeritus and head of the UNL Department of Agricultural Communications. Graham died March 23 at age 86.

From 1963 until his retirement in 1979, Graham served as a professor, academic adviser for agricultural journalism students, Extension Editor, chairman and head of the Department of Information, later the Department of Agricultural Communications.

"Throughout his career, Graham was held in high esteem by colleagues in Nebraska, this region, this nation and overseas as a cheerful, kind and considerate person and as an effective communicator," said Dick Fleming, a colleague and professor emeritus of Agricultural Leadership Education and Communication.

"He was respected as a writer and editor who maintained high standards of accuracy while making technical information understandable to the public," Fleming added.

After Graham retired, he traveled extensively, including trips to Somalia, Inner Mongolia, along the China Silk Road and other Asian countries. He also worked with Earthwatch, a non-profit organization helping university researchers in the U.S. and abroad, helping with studies in Kenya and on islands in the Mediterranean Sea.

Born on a farm near Avoca, Neb., he received his A.B. in journalism from UNL in 1936. Graham began his career as a market and financial editor for the Lincoln Journal. Later, he became a reporter and farm editor for the Scottsbluff Star-Herald.

Beginning in 1940, he served in active duty for five years in U.S Army, including more than two years in the China-Burma-India Theater. He continued to serve the U.S. Army Reserve until he retired from service in 1966 with the rank of colonel.

After returning from active service, he became the editor for the Mineral Wells Index in Mineral Wells, Texas prior to joining UNL as an Experiment Station Editor. He held the position from 1947-1963.

During his time at the university, he co-authored a documentary film, "Nebraska: Where the Cornbelt Meets the Range," and a book titled, "College of Agriculture of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln-The First Century."

His wife Jeanne McQuistan preceded him in death in 1974. A son, John, of Lincoln, and three grandchildren survive him.

Memorials can be made to the Hospice Care of Nebraska or University of Nebraska Foundation.

Baatz Attends Taking the Lead Institute

Fran Baatz, infant supervisor with the University Child Care Center, attended Nebraska's second Taking the Lead Institute March 19-21 at the St. Benedict Center near Schuyler.

The Institute builds early childhood community leadership across Nebraska and its communities. To meet the growing need for leadership to represent Nebraska children and families in public decision-making, the Institute invited two-person team applications from projects and organizations associated with early child care and education.

Taking the Lead Institutes are sponsored by the Nebraska Early Childhood Training Center in partnership with University of Nebraska Cooperative Extension. The program was funded with a grant from the Nebraska Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services.

Six UNL Researchers Earn DOD Grant Awards

Six UNL researchers are among 63 competitive grant winners announced last month by the Department of Defense in the 2001 Defense Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research.

The national awards totaled $18.7 million and averaged just under $300,000 each. The program is designed to expand research opportunities in states that have traditionally received the least funding in federal support for university research.

The six UNL award winners, their projects and funding agencies were:

o Peter Dowben, professor of physics and astronomy, "Spin-polarization at Ferromagnetic-insulator Interfaces."

o Diandra Leslie-Pelecky, assistant professor of physics and astronomy, "Cluster-assembled Soft Magnets for Power Electronics Applications."

o Ram Narayanan, professor of electrical engineering, "Random Noise Monopulse Radar Technique for Covert Tracking of Missiles in Flight."

o Robert Palmer, associate professor of electrical engineering, "Atmospheric Boundary Layer Structure and Dynamics Revealed Through Adaptive Imaging Techniques."

o You Qiang, research assistant professor of physics and astronomy, "Control Dynamics of Interacting Spins in Nanoscale Metamaterials."

o Ralph Skomski, research assistant professor of physics and astronomy, "Advanced Nanostructured Magnetic Materials."

Journalism College to Honor Graduates

The College of Journalism and Mass Communications Alumni Association will present four Awards of Excellence at the 10th annual Journalism Awards Banquet April 6 at the Wick Alumni Center.

o Lyle Denniston, '55, will receive the Outstanding News-Editorial Alumnus Award. A Nebraska City native, Denniston has spent most of his 52 years as a journalist covering the U.S. Supreme Court for East Coast newspapers. He worked for the Washington Star and the Wall Street Journal before taking a job with the Baltimore Sun for 19 years. In February, he became the Supreme Court correspondent for the Boston Globe. Denniston also has taught journalism, creative writing and law at Georgetown University, Johns Hopkins University and American University. For the last three years, he has taught a course in American constitutional history in the Washington Program of Penn State University. He has written "The Reporter and the Law: Techniques of Covering the Courts" and is working on a second text on constitutional history.

o Lynne Grasz, '66, will receive the Outstanding Advertising Alumnus Award. She is president and CEO of Grasz Communications, an international marketing and public relations firm based in New York City. The Lincoln native's clients have included a television broadcast group, two national magazines, three broadcasting associations, television, film and production companies, motion graphic and print designers, an international photographer, an international fashion designer and several authors. She has won several awards, including two Emmys in St. Louis for on-air news promotion, a national Headliner Award and Religion in Media Award, and an Abe Lincoln Award as producer of "Children's News." The New York Women's Agenda presented her with a Galaxy Woman of the Future award in 2000. A pioneer in many areas, she was the first woman president of the Broadcast Promotion Association (now PROMAX) in 1977.

o Gary Shapiro, '75, will receive the Outstanding Broadcasting Alumnus Award. He is the anchor of "9News Daybreak" and "9News 6 A.M." for KUSA TV, the NBC affiliate in Denver. He also anchors the "9News at Noon" and reports on special projects. Shapiro joined 9News in 1983 as the Boulder bureau reporter and began anchoring the morning shows in 1989. A Norfolk native, he began his broadcast career in Kearney before becoming a weekend anchor for Omaha KETV. For KUSA, he has produced several TV specials and documentaries, including an in-depth look at the Five Points neighborhood in Denver; a yearlong look at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs; and an examination of Denver's longest street, Colfax Avenue. He has won regional Emmys and the coveted 1992 Edward R. Murrow Award for documentary reporting.

o Charles Bierbauer, CNN's senior Washington correspondent, will be honored with the Outstanding Service to the Journalism Profession Award. Bierbauer covers public policy issues, the U.S. Supreme Court and national legal affairs. As a result of his expertise in national policy and presidential politics, the senior correspondent position was created for him in 1992. He joined CNN in 1981 as the network's defense correspondent. From 1985 to 1995, he hosted CNN's "Newsmaker Saturday," a weekly report featuring in-depth interviews with leading newsmakers. Bierbauer also worked for 12 years as an international journalist. He covered all U.S.-Soviet summits, beginning with the Gerald Ford-Leonid Brezhnev summit in 1975 through the first post-Soviet summit between George H.W. Bush and Boris Yeltsin in 1993.