4 Students Win NSF Post-Grad Fellowships

Four University of Nebraska-Lincoln seniors-including three in mathematics-have won prestigious National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships.

Records in NU's Research Grants and Contracts Office do not show a previous year where the university has had more than one NSF graduate fellow in the same year, while the three in the math department were the most in math for any public institution in the United States in 1999. Only Harvard (with eight) had more than three fellows in math this year. MIT and Princeton also had three math fellows.

The four winners include one chemical engineering major, James Bielenberg of Kearney, who plans to pursue graduate studies at NU, and the three mathematics majors, Travis Fisher and Paul Macklin of Fremont and Stephen Whalen of Altoona, Iowa. Fisher plans to attend the University of Maryland at College Park; Macklin, who has a double major in German and is a Chancellor's Scholar with a perfect 4.0 career grade-point average, will go to New York University; and Whalen plans to enroll at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.

A fifth student, math major Michael McQuistan of Pender, was given honorable-mention status and could be eligible for a fellowship if other recipients decide not to participate. He plans to attend the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

"To the best of our memory, we haven't had a (math) student win an NSF graduate fellowship in more than 25 years, so this is quite significant for us," said Jim Lewis, professor and chair of mathematics and statistics. "It is evidence that UNL-and mathematics-is attracting very outstanding students as a result of things like our Eastman Scholarship fund and the university's emphasis on serving outstanding students. And these are all outstanding students."

James Eakman, professor and chair of chemical engineering, said Bielenberg's fellowship is also an accomplishment by an outstanding student.

"He's very bright and he's been very involved in our student organizations," Eakman said. "For two years in a row, he's been elected president of our student professional organization and he's also won the Othmer Award from our national society."

The three-year fellowships are awarded for graduate study leading to research-based master's or doctoral degrees in the fields of science, mathematics and engineering supported by NSF. The stipend during 1999-2000 will be $15,000 for a 12-month tenure.

---

CBA Among Founding Members of MBA Roundtable

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Business Administration has been named one of 12 founding members of the MBA Roundtable, an independent academic organization whose mission is to support member schools in their efforts to keep their programs current, challenging and relevant.

The roundtable's focus is upon the curriculum, services and activities of MBA programs. The roundtable's mission includes serving as a clearinghouse for reform efforts in management higher education.

Among the other founding members are the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, the Maastricht School of Management in the Netherlands, the Warwick Business School in England, the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business at the University of Pittsburgh and the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California.

Detailed information can be obtained from the organization's web site at http://www.du.edu/dcb/MBA-Rou ndtable.

Gordon Karels, associate dean of CBA, serves as an officer of the MBA Roundtable and Lester Digman of the management department is a member of the steering committee.

Eight NU Faculty, Instructors Receive Holling Awards

Eight NU faculty members and instructors have won the second annual Holling Family Awards for Teaching Excellence.

Six were honored March 5. Two from the Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture in Curtis will be recognized later.

The awards are made possible by a $3 million gift from the Holling family to the NU Foundation in 1990 to honor their pioneer parents.

The awards and recipients are:

Senior Faculty Teaching Excellence awards ($5,000 stipend) -- Dean E. Eisenhauer, Michael F. Kocher, Keith L. Glewen and Terri Jo Bek.

Junior Faculty Teaching Excellence awards ($3,000 stipend) -- Rhae A. Drijber, James A. Kennedy.

Teaching Assistant Teaching Excellence awards ($1,000 stipend) -- Galen Erickson, Todd Campbell.

NU Forensics Team Wins National Title

The first-year competitors of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln speech and debate team were named the 1999 national champion team at the Novice National Forensics Tournament March 19 and 20 in Fremont.

Four Nebraska students won individual national titles, including top speaker.

Freshman Jason Bottlinger of Norfolk was named individual sweepstakes national champion after placing in the final rounds of parliamentary debate, extemporaneous speaking, impromptu speaking, impromptu sales and prose interpretation.

Freshman Kendra Kingsbury of Rapid City, S.D., Bottlinger's debate partner, placed fourth in individual sweepstakes, taking the national title in informative speaking and placing second in persuasion. Freshman Amanda McGill of Omaha was named the national champion of persuasion, took second to Kingsbury in informative speaking and placed second in communication analysis. Freshman Varee Gordon of Westmorland, Kan., claimed the championship in after-dinner speaking, with teammates Carrie Heaton of Enid, Okla., Nick Reisch of Yankton, S.D., and Bottlinger placing second, fourth and fifth.

All 12 of the NU students competing reached the semifinal or final rounds of the tournament, which is in its 17th year. The tournament focuses only on national competition for first-year collegiate competitors and was attended by 25 schools from around the country.