September 18, 2003

The Midwest Roadside Safety Facility team is, from left to right: Jim Holloway, John Rohde, Ronald Faller, John Reid, Dean Sicking, Karla Polivka and Bob Bielenberg.

SAFER barrier makes top 100 list

Research and Development Magazine has selected the Steel and Foam Energy Reduction barrier as a winner in the 2003 R&D 100 Awards program. The SAFER barrier, which is used on racetracks as an auto racing safety feature, is a development of the Midwest Roadside Safety Facility at UNL.

According to R&D Magazine, an independent judging panel and editors of the magazine selected the SAFER development as one of the 100 most technologically significant products introduced into the marketplace over the past year.

The SAFER barrier, also known as "soft wall" or "energy-absorbing wall" technology, was developed in 2001-2002 by the MwRSF and its director, Dean Sicking, under sponsorship from the Indy Racing League, Indianapolis Motor Speedway and NASCAR. The SAFER wall's design and materials help absorb the energy created when a car crashes into it, dissipating the impact energy and distributing it over a longer distance of the wall without propelling the vehicle back into traffic, helping to make race-car crashes less dangerous. The outer wall is made of structural steel tubes, while underneath is as much as 14 inches of energy-absorbing plastic foam in polystyrene blocks spaced behind the steel skin.

The full list of R&D 100 winners is published in the September 2003 issue of R&D Magazine. The Midwest Roadside Safety Facility development team of Sicking, Ronald Faller, John Rohde, John Reid, Jim Holloway, Karla Polivka and Bob Bielenberg is invited to participate in an awards banquet Oct. 16 in Chicago.

Johnson honored for teaching

Julie Johnson, head of the family and consumer sciences department at UNL, has won the 2003 Outstanding University Teacher Educator Award of the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences Education and Technology Division. Johnson's research focuses on family and consumer sciences education. Her extension efforts include working with Leadership Lincoln.

Ramirez receives Heart of 4-H Award

Sheri Ramirez was named by Lancaster County 4-H as the July "Heart of 4-H Award" winner in recognition of outstanding volunteer service. An employee of University Housing at Burr/Fedde/Love residence halls, Ramirez has been a 4-H volunteer for 10 years. She is co-leader of the Flamingos and Pet Pals 4-H clubs, as well as co-superintendent of the 4-H Household Pets Show at the county fair. She has also helped with Clover College and Character Counts! activities.

Faculty earn awards in animal science

Two UNL faculty members have received awards from the American Society of Animal Science.

Terry Klopfenstein, Wagner Professor of animal science, received the 2003 Fellow Award for teaching. The award is for people who have provided distinguished service to the animal industry and/or to the society and have had continuous membership in the society for at least 25 years.

Klopfenstein came to UNL in 1965 and has been recognized for his teaching and research.

Terry Mader received the 2003 Animal Management Award. He was recognized for his research and extension efforts that characterized lifetime implant responses in cattle.

Mader joined the UNL faculty in 1981 and has researched developing management systems for solving complex beef production problems.

Mark Stigge wins Security scholarship

Mark Stigge, a senior mathematics major at UNL, was one of 100 nationally to be awarded a U.S. Department of Homeland Security Scholarship.

The scholarship gives the Wichita, Kan., native a $1,000 a month stipend during the academic year, full tuition and fees, and a $500-per-week, eight- to 10-month internship that begins next summer.

Nearly 2,500 applied for the 2003-04 undergraduate and graduate scholarships. This is the first year for the undergraduate awards.

The awards are intended for students interested in pursuing the basic science and technology innovations that can be applied to the Homeland Security mission of preventing terrorist attacks in the United States, reducing America's vulnerability to terrorism, and minimizing the damage and recovery efforts from attacks that occur.

Stigge is a 2000 graduate of Wichita East High School.

Food institute honors 2 faculty members

Two UNL faculty members have received awards from the Institute of Food Technologists.

John Rupnow, professor of food science and technology, was given the 2003 IFT William V. Creuss Award.

The award honors an IFT member who has achieved excellence in teaching food science and technology.

Steve Taylor won the 2003 IFT Bernard L. Oser Ingredient Safety Award. Taylor is the head of the food science and technology department and director of the university's Food Processing Center.

His research includes developing tests that detect residues of allergenic foods and the effect of processing on food allergens.

The award honors contributions to the scientific knowledge of food ingredient safety or leadership in establishing principles of food ingredient safety evaluation and regulation.

Obituary

Former dean of law Grether remembered

Henry Grether Jr., former dean of the College of Law, died Sept. 8 in Salt Lake City after complications from Parkinson's disease and leukemia. He was 83 years old.

Grether began his teaching career as an instructor at the University of Nebraska in 1948 after receiving degrees from the University of Utah and the University of Minnesota. He became a professor in 1957 and was dean of the Law College from 1966-1976.

Grether's tenure at Nebraska was full of many accomplishments, said John Gradwohl, Ross McCollum professor of law, who worked with Grether. The most obvious was the building of the Ross McCollum College of Law building on East Campus. But in addition, Gradwohl said, student enrollment in the college tripled and the number of female law students grew from nearly none to about 40 percent of the student population during Grether's deanship.

"Henry Grether was loved by generations of lawyers because he was genuinely interested in both their legal education and their 'other lives,'" Gradwohl said.

This love was expressed when students solicited the funds needed to create the Henry M. Grether Jr. Distinguished Professorship of Law endowed at the College of Law in 1990, when Grether retired, Gradwohl said.

"This was something put together as a genuine student solicitation of funds for one of the professors on the faculty who was the closest to the students," Gradwohl said. "He was interested in the students in class and out of class."

Upon his retirement, Grether lived in California before moving back to the Salt Lake City area.

In addition to his academic career in Nebraska, Grether also served as assistant attorney general for Nebraska and a special attorney for the Nebraska Department of Roads. He was a counsel to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee at the request of former Nebraska Sen. Roman Hruska to study court congestion in the federal court system. He also was a trust consultant at Union Bank and Trust Co. and was a founder of the Great Plains Federal Tax Institute and Nebraska Continuing Legal Education, Inc.

Grether was a member of the American Bar Association and served on the executive counsel of the Nebraska State Bar Association. He also was a member of the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, which drafts and recommends statutory codes for enactment by state legislators, Gradwohl said. Grether was also a longtime member of the American Law Institute, which focuses on law reform.

Grether is survived by his wife, Jane; two daughters and one son; and four grandchildren.

Services were Sept. 13 in Sandy, Utah.