Tetreault Honored for Contribution to the Status of Women

Pat Tetreault is the 1999 winner of the Outstanding Contribution to the Status of Women Award. She was nominated by the Chancellor's Commission on the Status of Women and received the award May 3.

Tetreault is Sexuality Education Program Coordinator at the University Health Center, Community Health Education Department.

Graduate Awards Conferred April 27

The University of Nebraska Alumni Association and the Graduate College honored several at the Graduate Awards banquet April 27.

Sharon Harris, professor of English, received the alumni association's Excellence in Graduate Education Award. A faculty member since 1991, Harris has developed nine graduate courses, six seminars and three 800-level courses. She supervises 12 Ph.D. students - the most of any graduate faculty member in English - and sits on another 14 Ph.D. committees. The recipient of teaching awards from both the college and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Parents Association, Harris also co-edits American Women Prose Writers, 1870-1920 with two of her students and Periodical Literature in Eighteenth-Century America with another student. She has six books published by academic presses.

Joyce Besheer and Alexander Spivak received the alumni association's 1999 Graduate Research Assistant Awards. Besheer is a doctoral candidate and research assistant in psychology, and Spivak is a doctoral candidate and research assistant in engineering mechanics.

A native of Beirut, Lebanon, Besheer holds a bachelor's degree from Indiana University. She is president of the Graduate Student Association in the department of psychology where she has earned a Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco travel grant, an NU Scholastic Research Summer Fellowship and a Nebraska Behavioral Biology Group mini-grant. Her research area is behavioral neuropharmacology which bridges biology, pharmacology, psychology and neuroscience. She is studying animal models that will provide insight into vulnerability for drug use and abuse. Besheer also manages the animal colony and laboratory supplies, has co-written several manuscripts, and has increased the laboratory's ability to seek outside funding.

In 1996, graduate research assistant Alexander Spivak joined a National Science Foundation project at NU on electrospinning, an emerging technology for manufacturing polymer nanofibers. Spivak has developed models of all three major subprocesses of the electrospinning process and has designed and built an experimental electrospinning installation for analyzing the results. His work has been published in several journals and was critical to the renewal of an NSF grant on electrospinning. Spivak, a native of Latvia and citizen of Canada, earned his bachelor's degree in computer science from Riga Aviation University and master's in physics from Latvian State University. In 1997, he earned first prize in English Writing Competition-English as a Second Language from the English department.

The alumni association's 1999 Graduate Teaching Assistant Award recipients are Marko Grunhagen, doctoral candidate and graduate teaching assistant in marketing, and Michael Ira, '93, doctoral candidate and graduate teaching assistant in the department of mathematics and statistics.

Grunhagen, a native of Germany, has taught classes in principles of marketing, retail management and international marketing, twice earning the marketing department's Award for Excellence in Teaching by a Graduate Student and, most recently, earning an NU Parents Association Award for Contributions to Students. Displaying an understanding of the global marketplace, he is particularly adept at making comparisons between the United States and Europe. Grunhagen has bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Cologne in Germany and Eastern Illinois University, where he was president of the MBA Association. He has co-authored several research papers with NU faculty members. From 1989 to 1997 Grunhagen served as a chaperone and tour organizer for CONCORD German-American Youth Exchange Program.

A graduate teaching assistant at Nebraska since 1991, Ira is consistently ranked by undergraduates as one of the best teachers in the department of mathematics and statistics. He was the department's outstanding graduate teaching assistant in 1997-98 and the recipient of Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital Chairman's GOAL award in 1997, after undergoing a liver transplant. In 1996, Ira was a grad student representative to a meeting of the Mathematicians and Education Reform (MER) department network. As a result he was selected to plan and conduct a subsequent grad student workshop for the MER department network. Ira holds a master's in mathematics from NU and a bachelor's in mathematics and computer science from the University of Wisconsin at LaCrosse.

Recipient of the Graduate College's Folsom Outstanding Thesis Award is Ying Zhou, who graduated in December 1997 with a master of science degree in textiles, clothing and design. Her thesis, "The Effect of Ultraviolet Absorbers and Repeated Home Launderings on Ultraviolet Radiation Transmission through Fabrics," was selected as the university's entrant in the Midwest Association of Graduate Schools outstanding thesis competition. Zhou's research focuses on sun protective clothing and the external environmental effects of composted fabrics. The graduate faculty recognized the quality of her research, the theoretical foundation and the usefulness of the findings to both industry and consumers. Zhou is pursuing a Ph.D. in the department of textiles, clothing and design.

The Graduate College's Folsom Outstanding Dissertation Award goes to Diane Moody, who graduated with a doctor of philosophy degree in animal science in August 1998. Her dissertation, "Phenotypic Variation and Identification of Quantitative Trait Loci for Traits Influencing Energy Balance in Mice," sets the stage for important applications in livestock improvement and for addressing obesity in humans. Her dissertation is even more appealing because of the crossover relevance between agriculture and biomedicine using an equal combination of biology, molecular genetics and statistics during the research process. Moody is doing post-doctoral research with the livestock performance enhancement group of Elanco Animal Health, the animal science division of Eli Lilly.

Recipient of the college's Graduate Assistant Mentoring Award is Earl Wright II, doctoral candidate in sociology at NU. Wright founded and is president of the campus chapter of the Black Graduate Student Association, which provides a support network for African American students through education, mentoring, research and service. According to his nominator, he has done an outstanding job in broad scale efforts to change the climate at NU for students of color, to develop the pipeline of students of color at the university, to serve as a role model of a serious scholar who has deep commitment to the finest standards of scholarship as well as to the community, and as someone who is also willing to help individual students.

Women's Studies Awards/Recognitions Presented

The Women's Studies Spring Graduate Reception and Awards Ceremony was held April 29 in the Wick Alumni Center.

Student awards and recognition were presented. The "Celebrating and Honoring Graduating Women's Studies Majors" recognition went to Nancy Christensen, Tina Giambastiani and Katie Ross. A "Celebrating and Honoring Graduating Women's Studies Minors" recognition was given to Carey Gordon.

A review of Women's Studies Association Events and the 1999 No Limits Conference was given to the WSA and Stephanie Witham.

The Karen Dunning Women's Studies Scholarly Paper/Creative Activity Awards went to Angie DeVoss (undergraduate) and Mindy Jo Anderson (graduate).

The Women's Studies Outstanding Achievement Award went to Amanda Lightner and Katie Ross. The Women's Studies Scholarship in Action Award was presented to Tina Giambastiani and Gretchen Obrist. In addition, Honors Convocation Certificates were earned by Tina Giambastiani, Gretchen Obrist and Katie Ross.

Jennifer Putzi received the Woodrow Wilson Dissertation Grant and President's Fellowship. Stephanie Witham received the Human Rights/Human Diversity Graduate Fellowship Award and the Warren F. and Edith R. Day Student Aid Fund Award.

Faculty awards and recognition also were presented.

Amy Goodburn received the College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Teaching Award, UNL Scholarly Teaching Award. Sharon Harris received an Excellence in Graduate Education Award. Lyn Kathlene was presented with a Gallup Research Professorship for 1999-2000.

Ann Mari May received the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Nebraska Professor of the Year Award. Wendy Weiss received the "Shades of Leadership" Award.

Adaleida Martinez was honored by Claridades Magazine. Helen Moore was appointed editor of Teaching Sociology.

Moira Ferguson was recognized as the founder of the UNL Women's Studies Program.