October 2, 2003

19 receive graduate fellowships in IANR

Nineteen UNL graduate students in the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources have earned 2003-2004 graduate fellowships and scholarships from five major donors. All were honored at an awards luncheon Sept. 26.

Ten received the Widaman Trust Distinguished Graduate Assistant awards, three earned Shear-Miles Agricultural Scholarship and Fellowship awards, one received the Hardin Distinguished Graduate Fellowship, four earned the John and Louisa Skala Fellowship Recipient Award and one received the Moseman Fellowship award.

The Widaman Trust award supports students conducting basic research in agriculture and medicine. Widaman recipients are Ricardo Abdelnoor and Arlene Adviento, agronomy and horticulture; Sandra Senneke and Leslie Stalker, animal science; Dan Su, biochemistry; Joao Camargo, biological systems engineering; Paula Macedo, entomology; Subhashinee Wijeratne, food science and technology; Wei Li, plant pathology; Rohana Dassanayake, veterinary and biomedical sciences.

The Shear-Miles Award provides scholarships and fellowships to benefit the Agricultural Research Division and the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources. Recipients are Kelly Creighton, animal science; Analiza Alves, entomology; and Kathleen Eggemeyer, natural resources.

The Hardin Fellowship provides funds for a student conducting research in agriculture. It was awarded to Walter Suza, plant breeding and genetics in the Department of Agronomy and Horticulture.

The Skala Fellowship provides a stipend to graduate students engaged in research related to new industrial uses of agricultural products. The recipients are Oscar Esquivel, animal science; Junjie Guan and Girish Ganjyal, biological systems engineering; and Yixiang Xu, food science and technology.

The Moseman Award is presented to a graduate student in the agronomy graduate program with interests in international agriculture and world food development. It was awarded to Fufa Birru, plant breeding and genetics.

300 undergraduates in UCARE program

Some 300 UNL undergraduates will work one-on-one with faculty mentors this fall as the Undergraduate Creative Activities and Research Experiences program enters its fourth year.

UCARE is a program that allows undergraduate students to explore a field and learn alongside faculty in a creative activity or research area. Students receive a stipend funded by the Pepsi Endowment, created by the contract between the university and the Pepsi-Cola Co., or funded by the university Program of Excellence funds.

First-year students serve as undergraduate research assistants for their faculty sponsors and earn compensation up to $2,000. Students who continue on for a second year of UCARE funding, still guided by their faculty sponsors, receive up to $2,400, $400 of which helps to offset research expenses.

"Not only does this program allow undergraduates the opportunity to learn and experience what usually has to wait until graduate school, but it also provides them with excellent faculty mentors and relationships that they would never have experienced in the classroom," said UCARE coordinator Laura Damuth.

A program description, application forms, and a complete list of projects for 2003-04 can be found on the UCARE website, <www.unl.edu/ucare>. The next full round of UCARE applications will be due Feb. 13 for the next academic year.